KnowCoat Project Update

Updated 24th June 2004

The KnowCoat project was scheduled to run for two years. However during the course of the project some of the IT partners underwent organisational changes and in some cases ceased operation. As a result of the consequent days the project was granted an extension. The final review took place in Brussels on 7th July 2004.

KnowCoat is structured into ten workpackages with a total of 34 specific deliverables culminating in a fully operational platform.

Work Package 1 (WP1), which was led by PRA, defined the information requirements of potential uesrs within the coatings industry and the type of interface most suited to distribute the required information. This first task was completed on schedule and has shaped the structure of the applications that will be used to demonstrate the capability of the platform.

WP1 defined three broad generic end-use scenarios, namely:

Each of these will be exemplified with specific applications illustrating different aspects of information retrieval, knowledge management and problem solving. Specifications for the following applications have been defined.

Runing alongside WP1 was the second work package (WP2) which defined the type and format of relevant information required in the coatings supply chain. This has also now been completed and lists all types of information from books and journals, to web pages and databases.

Work is largely complete on the other work packages, in particular:

WP9 and WP10 are concerned with business assessment and management.

As a result of this activity working prototypes are being prepared which will in due course be accesible through the project web site. This page will be updated in due course to report progress and the result of the final review.