FORTH is one of the largest research centers in Greece with well-organized facilities and highly qualified personnel. It consists of six Research Institutes and its research and technological directions cover major areas of scientific, social, and economic interest. The Research Institute participating in ARIADNE is the Institute of Computer Science (ICS). ICS is the top-rated research institute in Greece in the area of ICT, and represents Greece within the ERCIM network of European ICT institutes. The research activities of the ICS are focused in the domains of Biomedical Informatics, Computational Vision and Robotics, Computer Architecture and VLSI design, Information Systems and Cultural Informatics, Human-Computer Interaction and Universal Access, Telecommunications and Networks, Distributed Computing Systems, Information Security and Ambient Intelligence.

The FORTH-ICS Information Systems Laboratory (ISL) combines expertise in knowledge representation and reasoning, database systems, net-centric information systems, and conceptual modelling.

The Centre for Cultural Informatics (CCI) is a specialized unit in the ISL and brings together skills in knowledge representation, ontology engineering, knowledge organization systems, database technology and web technology with expertise in archaeology, museum documentation and management, art conservation, archives and libraries, thesaurus and dictionary management and other disciplines as physics, history, geography, biodiversity etc.

Within the scope of its activities CCI has co-operations with cultural institutions and scientists from the humanities that range from pure research to real application development. The activities of the CCI unfold in three directions:

  • Targeted research on the formal representation of information structure and scientific discourse in the humanities, in the machine – supported communication and in the semantic interoperability.
  • Community building for the promotion of standards, complementary skills and know-how in the creation, processing, integration and presentation of cultural information for the benefit of quality, accessibility and exploitation of digital cultural content.
  • Targeted development of advanced information systems that provide a scientific challenge or a proof -of -concept in real settings.

Results of these activities include Archaeological data models and standards, Monuments’ and museums’ information systems, and Terminology systems. The Centre works as competence center for the CIDOC-CRM (ISO 21127), by building up and exchanging application know-how, consultancy to implementers and researchers, and contribution to the dissemination, maintenance and evolution of the standard itself.

Role in the project

In the context of WP11 “Addressing Complexity” ,  FORTH will lead Task 11.1 on  extending  the Conceptual Reference Model, (CIDOC-CRM: ISO 21127:2006 – A reference ontology for the interchange of cultural heritage information) to improve its fit for specific subdomains that are important for archaeological research.

Principal personnel involved 

Dr. Martin Doerr has studied mathematics and physics from 1972-78 and holds a PhD from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany. Since 1990 he has been Principal Researcher and since 2009 a Research Director at FORTH. He has been leading or participating in a series of national and international projects for knowledge management, terminology management, cultural information systems and information integration systems. He is leading the working group of ICOM/CIDOC (International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums) which has developed ISO21127:2006, together with the respective ISO committees, a standard core ontology for the semantic interoperability of cultural heritage information. He is member of the editorial board of the journal Applied Ontology and the ACM Journal on Computers and Cultural Heritage. He has published more than 30 refereed papers and 6 book chapters. His research interests are ontology engineering, semantic interoperability and information integration.

Maria Theodoridou is an R&D engineer in the ISL and the CCI at FORTH. She holds a MASc in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto and a Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Maria has been actively involved in several national and international cultural information systems’ projects. Her research interests include digital libraries, source material management systems, multimedia information systems and conceptual modelling

Selected publications

Doerr, M., Kritsotaki, A., & Boutsika, A. (2011). Factual argumentation – a core model for assertions making. Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage (JOCCH) . 3 (3), New York, NY, USA : ACM , (34)

Kondylakis, H., Doerr, M., & Plexousakis, D. (2009). Empowering Provenance in Data Integration. 13th East European Conference on Advances in Databases and Information Systems, ADBIS 2009. 7 September 2009 through 10 September 2009, Riga. (pp. 270-285)

Website: FORTH-ICS