Activities
RESEARCH COORDINATION AGENTLINK II
This component of AgentLink's activities is coordinated by Yves Demazeau.
The first and most important thing to note is that AgentLink is not specifically a research project; we will not directly fund research activities, or employ researchers to carry out research. As with the network generally, our role is more that of facilitator: we aim to carry out activities that will enable and encourage first-rate European agent research. More specifically, the goals of the research component of AgentLink are:
- encouraging the development of research communities in new and promising areas; providing a high-quality infrastructure for disseminating research results, issues, datasets, and software; and
- encouraging cross fertilisation of research skills across the European region.
- In order to realise these aims, the following programme of work will be carried out:
- Research database
A research database has been established, mapping areas of research within the scope of AgentLink to nodes within AgentLink that have expertise in these areas. The database is available via the AgentLink WWW site, and provides at-a-glance information on the major areas of strength within AgentLink. this activity will be consolidated by ensuring that the database is kept up-to-date, and by expanding it with new areas of research and development
activity as they emerge.
- Research area special interest groups
In order to promote collaborative projects and cross fertilisation of ideas between academic nodes with similar interests, an infrastructure will be put in place to support special interest groups (SIGs) addressing special areas of research interest. The infrastructure will promote collaborative projects by putting groups with related interests in touch with one-another, providing information about national and international project support for these areas of interest, workshops and conferences of interest, and so on. Other support will be provided in the form of funding to support meetings of the SIGs and dissemination of information.
Information on the Special Interest Groups is available online.
- Clearinghouse for agent-related papers, articles, datasets, and software
- Currently, there are no central repositories (in the world) where students and researchers can expect to find pre-prints or reprints of agent-related research material, datasets, electronic bibliographies, freely available research software, and so on --- despite the fact that all of these are available in one form or another across the WWW. AgentLink will create an online clearinghouse that allows researchers to keep such materials in a single, central place. Materials will be obtained both by actively searching for it and obtaining the
relevant permissions, and by researchers submitting it electronically. Materials will be indexed wherever possible using the AgentLink research classification, with the goal of allowing users rapid, easy access to relevant materials.
The clearinghouse is now online, and ready for online submission of agent-related papers.
Support for agent workshops and conferences
Financial support will be provided for workshops and conferences that explicitly cover areas of interest to AgentLink. The goal of this support is to pump-prime research in
strategically important areas of agent R&D, as indicated in AgentLink's primary objectives. Support will be provided primarily for innovative, novel areas, with clear potential for the development of strong research communities within Europe. Support will not be provided for new workshops or conferences that relate to areas already covered by
established events. Requests for support of conferences and workshops will be directed to the workpackage coordinator, who will make recommendations to the management committee. Events supported by AgentLink will be required, as a condition of funding, to write a report on the event for subsequent inclusion in the AgentLink newsletter and the AgentLink WWW site.
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