JISC

Within the research community there is growing interest in developing and applying text mining tools (text mining is a set of techniques for the intelligent retrieval of textual information against complex search criteria) to help researchers deal with both the growing size of the academic literature and the amount of data held in electronic text format.  This interest is especially strong in biology and biomedicine.  At the same time, developments in computational linguistics have led to a better understanding of the scientific and technical problems involved in text mining.

The Joint Information Systems (JISC), the Biotechnology and Biological Research Council (BBSRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) have therefore agreed to fund a UK Centre for Text Mining initially focused on biological and biomedical science.  This area of science has the largest user community and the fastest growing literature, and the area where most applications research in text mining is being undertaken.  It is anticipated however   that the tools developed by the Centre will be of interest and relevant to the needs of the wider academic community, and institutions wishing to express an interest of submit a full bid must demonstrate an understanding of the issues involved in extending the use of such tools beyond the biological/biomedicine disciplines.

Funds totalling £1 million have been made available by these bodies to fund the Centre as a three-year proof-of-principle service.   In the third year of funding a decision will be made about the continued funding of the Centre. The funding will support six full-time posts and the necessary computing equipment, providing resources for the necessary text mining, software engineering (applied language processing skills and service development), biology (task specification, tagging, engagement with the end-user biological community), management, and technical support.   

Expressions of interest to host the Centre are invited from UK Higher Education institutions.  Other institutions and commercial organisations are welcome to collaborate with eligible bodies to form consortia, but the lead site must be a UK HE institution.  This initial open call for expressions of interest is designed to ensure maximum possible participation, without the necessity that every group invests a large amount of time on a full bid.  Following evaluation of the initial bids, two or three groups will be invited to make full bids shortly afterwards.

Expressions of interest should be sent to Ann Lloyd, Joint Information Systems Committee, Northavon House, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol BS16 1QD.