Project Partners#
Full Partners#
University of Passau#
The Chair of Data Science at the University of Passau is headed by Prof. Michal Granitzer and conducts research on applied machine learning and information retrieval on web data. The chair is also host to the Junior research group “Computational Rhetoric in Social Media and Law – CAROLL” headed by Dr. Jelena Mitrović.
In OpenWebSearch.EU, the group is working on machine learning supported, resource efficient crawling and the development of specialised neural language models.
Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ)#
The Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) proudly stands at the forefront of its field as a world-class IT service and computing user facility serving Munich’s top universities and colleges as well as research institutions in Bavaria, Germany and Europe. As an institute of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, LRZ has provided a robust, holistic IT infrastructure for its users throughout the scientific community for nearly sixty years. It offers the complete range of resources, services, consulting and support – from email, web servers and Internet access to virtual machines, cloud solutions, data storage and the Munich Scientific Network (MWN).
Home to SuperMUC-NG, LRZ is part of Germany’s Gauss Centre for Supercomputing (GCS) and serves as part of the nation’s backbone for the advanced research and discovery possible through high-performance computing (HPC). In addition to current systems, LRZ’s Future Computing Group focuses on the evaluation of emerging Exascale-class architectures and technologies, development of highly scalable machine learning and artificial intelligence applications, and system integration of quantum acceleration with supercomputing systems.
Radboud University#
Prof.dr.ir. Arjen P. de Vries and prof. Djoerd Hiemstra lead the Information Retrieval research group at Radboud University, part of the Data Science section in the Institute for Computing and Information Sciences.
In OpenWebSearch.EU, we develop a new architecture for search engines where many parts of the system will be decentralized. The key idea is to separate index construction from the search engines themselves, where the most expensive step to create index shards can be carried out on large clusters while the search engine itself can be operated locally.
We also envision an Open-Web-Search Engine Hub, where companies and individuals can share their specifications of search engines and pre-computed, regularly updated search indices. We think of this as a search engine mash-up, that would enable a new future of human-centric search without privacy concerns.
Webis-Group#
Webis Group (Leipzig University, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg)
The Webis Group addresses challenges of the information society through basic research, developing technology, and implementing and evaluating prototypes for future information systems.
Within the OpenWebSearch.EU project, Prof. Martin Potthast (Leipzig University), Prof. Benno Stein (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar), and Prof. Matthias Hagen (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg) collaborate on the problems of Web archive analytics and the development of machine learning-based retrieval models, both of which form the basis for intelligent web search applications jointly developed as part of the project.
“Search is considered the key to free information on the Web – Open Search is the key to a free and diverse society.” says Prof. Dr. Martin Potthast (Webis Group, Leipzig University)
“Our project will make an important contribution to the democratization of index creation for future search engines.” says Prof. Dr. Benno Stein (Webis Group, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar)
The Graz University of Technology#
The Graz University of Technology (TUGraz) located in Graz, Austria, was founded in 1811 and serves more than 12,000 students. TUGraz is represented by the team of the Cognitive and Digital Science Lab (CoDiS Lab; http://isds.tugraz.at/codis), a research group that is part of the Institute of Interactive Systems and Data Science. The CoDiS Lab focuses on interdisciplinary research by connecting and applying computer science with cognitive psychology and human factors. The main research areas of CoDiS include (a) digital literacy development, (b) human and computational decision making, and (c) human-centred system design and evaluation. In the OpenWebSerach.EU project the CoDiS Lab is responsible for the creation of search applications that demonstrate the open web search infrastructure and motivate external parties to get involved. Furthermore, the team of the CoDiS Lab contributes to the integration of ethical values and human aspects in the search technology, such as trust, privacy, and explainability.
TU Graz benefits from the involvement in this project, as this endeavor aims to solve the major societal challenge of making web search independent through a technological solution. This increases public visibility and reputation of the university and the research team.
DLR#
DLR is the Federal Republic of Germany’s research centre for aeronautics and space. We conduct research and development activities in the fields of aeronautics, space, energy, transport, security and digitalisation. The German Space Agency at DLR plans and implements the national space programme on behalf of the federal government. Two DLR project management agencies oversee funding programmes and support knowledge transfer.
Climate, mobility and technology are changing globally. DLR uses the expertise of its 55 research institutes and facilities to develop solutions to these challenges. Our 10,000 employees (as of February 2021) share a mission – to explore Earth and space and develop technologies for a sustainable future. In doing so, DLR contributes to strengthening Germany’s position as a prime location for research and industry.
VSB – Technical University of Ostrava and IT4Innovations#
VSB – Technical University of Ostrava (VSB-TUO) was founded in 1849. It has since grown into a modern high education and research institution, offering the highest levels of education in technical and economic fields of study. VSB-TUO holds the “HR Excellence in Research” award and is the fourth largest university in the Czech Republic with students studying in BSc, MSc, and PhD degree programmes across seven faculties and a number of all-university study programmes. The university has a technical and economic orientation, and its primary aims are:
Providing higher education,
Research and development,
Cooperation with industry, public administration institutions, and local and regional authorities.
IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center (hereinafter IT4Innovations) is a university research institute of VSB – Technical University of Ostrava. IT4Innovations is a leading research, development, and innovation centre active in the field of high-performance computing (HPC), high-performance data analysis (HPDA), artificial intelligence (AI) and their application to other scientific fields, industry, and society. IT4Inovations is operating the most powerful supercomputing systems in the Czech Republic, which are provided to Czech and foreign research teams from both academia and industry. At the same time, IT4Innovations plays a role of the national research infrastructure.
CERN#
CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Its flagship accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is the world’s most powerful accelerator and is providing research facilities for several thousand high-energy physics researchers from all over the globe. The LHC experiments collected 80 Petabyte of data alone in 2018. The computing capacity required to analyse the data far exceeds the capacity needs of any comparable physics experiments and relies on the combined resources of some 200 computer centres in the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG). En-shrined in the CERN charter is the principle that “… the results of its experimental and theoretical work shall be published or otherwise made generally available” and this has inspired CERN to play a leading role in both European and worldwide Open Access movements, aiming to provide anyone with immediate and free access to the results of scientific research. CERN is represented in the project by Dr. Andreas Wagner, head of the Web Frameworks section. He has extensive experience in Web technologies and CERN’s institutional search service.
Open Search Foundation e.V.#
The Open Search Foundation e.V. is a European movement of people and organisations that work together to create the foundation for independent, free and self-determined access to information on the Internet. In cooperation with research institutions, computer centres and other partners, we’re committed to a searching the web in a way that benefits everyone. The promotion of research in the field of search engines, plus education and cooperation, form the pillars of our work.
»Internet search concerns us all. It enriches our democracy, as long as its cornerstones – trust, diversity and transparency – are upheld. I am very happy that we as an NGO are helping in this project to bring these values back to web search.« Christine Plote, Board member of the Open Search Foundation, Manager of the osf’s ethics working group
“Open Web Search will give Europe a boost in innovation. Science, the European data economy and the economy as a whole will be able to use the open web index as an innovation platform and data source,” says Dr Stefan Voigt, board member of the Open Search Foundation and head of the OpenSearch@DLR project from DLR’s German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD). “This is particularly important for future AI innovations and for other European infrastructures such as the European Open Science Cloud or GAIA-X.”
A1 Slovenija#
A1 Slovenija is the leading privately-owned provider of comprehensive communication services in Slovenia. It has more than 500 employees, who are committed to creating solutions and enriching the lives in the digital age for over 700,000 users. A1 Slovenija develops sensible communication solutions that meet users’ existing and emerging needs, so that they can experience work, fun, creativity and sharing in a more connected manner.
A1 Slovenija is a part of the A1 Telekom Austria Group (ATX: TKA), the leading provider of digital services and communications in Central and Eastern European countries, with more than 25 million customers in 7 countries, more than €4.55 billion in revenue, and around 18,000 employees. The Group is the European branch of América Móvil, one of the largest providers of wireless services in the world.
CSC – Center of Expertise in ICT#
CSC is a Finnish center of expertise in ICT that provides world-class services for research, education, culture, public administration and enterprises, to help them thrive and benefit society at large.
NL Net#
Since 1997 NLnet foundation (after its historical contribution to the early internet in Europe) has been financially supporting organizations and people that contribute to an open information society. It funds those with ideas to fix the internet. The procedure is fast, competitive and open to anyone. The articles of association for the NLnet foundation state: “to promote the exchange of electronic information and all that is related or beneficial to that purpose”.
NLnet has contributed funding to many important and very visible projects around fundamental standards from securing the core routing protocols and the domain name system of the internet to safer email, vendor-independent videoconferencing, more reliable wireless networks and private instant messaging - all based on open standards and verifiable open source software and/or hardware. It spawned the world-renowned NLnet Labs, and supported great open source projects like Jitsi, ARPA2, WireGuard, NoScript, Tor Hidden Services, GPLv3, GNUnet, and webODF.
Associated Partners#
SUMA-EV#
SUMA-EV is a German non-profit organisation specializing in search engines and the free availability of knowledge. Activities include organisation of conferences, funding and support of promising projects and performing talks at educational events as well as activism in the domains of free access to knowledge and privacy protection SUMA-EV is also hosting the privacy-centric meta search engine MetaGer which has been in continuous operation since 1996 in cooperation with the University of Hanover.
SUMA-EV has been part of the Open Web Index movement since the beginning, has hosted conferences for the OWI and related topics and has helped kick-start the Open Search Foundation in 2020. SUMA-EV was founded in 2012 and is based in Hanover, Germany.