WIREDGOV

£30 million institute for Web Science will lead the way in Web 3.0

News Release issued by the COI News Distribution Service on 22 March 2010

The Government today announced the creation of the new Institute for Web Science.

It is designed to make the UK the hub of international research into the next generation of web and internet technologies and their commercialisation, and was announced by the Prime Minister alongside plans for a radical opening up of information and data to put more power in people’s hands. The Institute will conduct research, collaborate with businesses, identify opportunities for social and economic benefit, assist in commercialising research and help Government stimulate demand through procurement.

The web was originally a place where people published documents that users could search and pick up. Web 2.0 has enabled users to contribute and create web content more easily. Web 3.0 will take the web to a whole new level by publishing data in a linkable format so that users and developers can see and exploit the relationships between different sets of information.

The development of these technologies will create significant new opportunities for business and the public sector. The impact of these technologies is likely to be as important as the creation of the original web, and could generate large-scale economic benefits for the UK in the global market for web and internet technologies. The role of the Institute will be to undertake research and development, and act as a bridge between research and business, helping commercialise these new technologies. It will also advise Government on how semantic technologies can be used in the public sector, and how public procurement can be used to speed their adoption.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that £30 million would be set aside to create the Institute for Web Science. It will be headed by Sir Tim Berners Lee, the British inventor of the World Wide Web, and leading Web Science expert Professor Nigel Shadbolt.

Speaking in London the Prime Minister said:

“We want to build on the outstanding work Sir Tim and Nigel Shadbolt have put in to ‘making public data public’. We are determined to go further in breaking down the walled garden of Government, using technology and information to provide greater transparency on the workings of Whitehall and give everyone more say over the services they receive.

“This Institute will help place the UK at the cutting edge of research on the Semantic Web and other emerging web and internet technologies and ensure the Government is taking the right funding decisions to position the UK as a world leader. We will invite universities and private sector web developers and companies to join this collaborative project.”

The Institute, to be funded through the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, will strengthen the UK’s world-leading capability in the development of semantic web technologies as well as others that enable the extraction of value from information. It will bring together the best minds from around the world to deliver the benefits of advances in web technology to businesses and individuals.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said:

“British innovation brought the web to the world. This Institute will ensure the UK remains at the forefront and that we anticipate and fully exploit the economic and social benefits of future developments.”

Whether it is to allow our research institutions and innovative businesses to maximise and demonstrate the strength and attractiveness of their networks, or to ensure we make the most of clinical information to improve our understanding of disease, a new web revolution is afoot.

Government support for this Institute as well as early adoption of these emerging technologies in the public sector arena will allow the UK to lead the way and help pull this technology through to the market place.

Notes to Editors:

1. The Institute for Web Science will be jointly based in the Universities of Oxford and Southampton. It is still subject to contract.

2. For further information, contact BIS press office on 0207 215 5938.

3. Case studies for early semantic web projects:

Mapping Clusters of UK Technology Excellence

With the support of Talis a UK company that develops Semantic Web applications the Research Councils UK, the Technology Strategy Board and the Intellectual Property Office collaborated to develop linked datasets in four key technology areas: regenerative medicine, plastic electronics, RFID and advanced composite materials. These in turn were linked to Google maps.

By ensuring that datasets have common elements and vocabulary it enables any company or potential inward investor to identify where the clusters of expertise lie in these important emerging technologies, the companies/organisations involved, the projects they are involved in, and how much public money has gone into them. It also enables UK Science Parks to market their sites on the basis of the strength of the clusters on and around the science park in question.

The organisations have learned from this exercise and are rolling this out across all technologies. It can also be extended to include Measurement research and research programmes funded by Government Departments and support given to relevant firms by RDAs. The upshot will be a comprehensive picture of research and technology excellence in the UK, inputs and outputs, as well as evolving relationships which will be updated on a regular basis.

Health data

There has already been pilot work between the Universities of Southampton and Oxford (Prof Shadbolt and Prof Sir Michael Brady) in the area of multi-disciplinary cancer treatment. The semantic mark up language SNOMED is also used within the NHS and could provide an opportunity for much more extensive patient record linkage using linked data technologies.

Inter-Departmental Data Sharing (Smarter Government)

Semantic approaches could also improve the efficiency of handling cases which straddle two Departments e.g. Health and Social Security. There is a large scale pilot already underway in the area of Assisted Living (in Cornwall, Kent and the Borough of Newham), which is being supported by the Technology Strategy Board (the Assisted Living Innovation Platform) which would provide a significant platform for developing the use of semantic approaches in a significant and growing area of public service delivery.

Department for Business, Innovation & Skills

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is building a dynamic and competitive UK economy by: creating the conditions for business success; promoting innovation, enterprise and science; and giving everyone the skills and opportunities to succeed. To achieve this it will foster world-class universities and promote an open global economy. BIS - Investing in our future.

Contacts:

BIS Press Office
NDS.BIS@coi.gsi.gov.uk

Laure Thomas
Phone: 020 7215 5938
Laure.Thomas@bis.gsi.gov.uk