GRACE - GRid seArch & Categorization Engine

GRACE is an innovative Information Retrieval system that enables just in time, flexible allocation of data and computational resources, thanks to integration with GRID technology.

GRACE is tailored specifically to the needs of the researchers in just any scientific field.  Its unique knowledge platform offers a wide range of functionalities by maximizing the use of the existing resources. Rather than requiring additional investments into the computing infrastructure, GRACE allows research communities to get organized around their specific common interests, and share their computational, storage and knowledge resources according to their specific information needs. For that purpose GRACE uses the cutting‑edge technologies, and introduces several ground‑breaking innovations into the information retrieval. Based on a Distributed Search and Retrieval approach, GRACE:

		addresses situations where no centralized index is available:
		“Deep Web” harvesting   Libraries and scientific documentation
		allows integration of multiple content sources:
		varying and multiple internal resources   external resources, such as web based document repositories, databases and search engines
		achieves a single point of access to all of them in parallel
		provides a uniform knowledge representation, where:
		post-retrieval categorization replaces ranking   metadata layer is automatically  generated based on content semantics
		handles unstructured textual information (text files, documents, Web pages, text stored in databases)
		indexes documents by systematically detecting relevant concepts
		allows detection of critical information, such as personal and organizational names, email addresses, and dates.
		allows user to formulate complex queries that require logical reasoning to be applied to the search results
		supports multilingualism
		through its innovative interface:
		allows users to browse the search results by their semantic relations   allows intense personalization
		being built on top of Grid Technology:
		maximises Grid advantages   processing executed where the information is located and/or computational resources are available

GRACE is project "IST-2001-38100" in the IST 2002 Framework 5, under CPA9: "Grid technologies and their applications".