29 September 2026 to 1 October 2026
Palais de l'Europe
Europe/Paris timezone

Transferring Intelligent Assistant Concepts to Ecosystem Research Infrastructures

1 Oct 2026, 09:45
15m
Palais de l'Europe

Palais de l'Europe

8 Av. Boyer, 06500 Menton
Oral Session 7: Digital Ecosystems – Data Integration and Modeling Session 7: Digital Ecosystems – Data Integration and Modeling

Speaker

Prof. Federica Mandreoli (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)

Description

Recent advances in manufacturing environments have stimulated the development of intelligent assistants that support human decision making through natural-language interaction, AI-assisted analytics, and seamless access to complex data ecosystems. Meanwhile, Research Infrastructures (RIs) and experimental ecosystem science are becoming increasingly data-intensive, generating large volumes of heterogeneous observations, measurements, models, and metadata. Despite advances in FAIR data management and interoperability, researchers still face challenges in discovering, integrating, and exploiting distributed resources. This study examines how such concepts can be transferred to RIs and experimental ecosystem science.

A conceptual transfer analysis was conducted using recent advances in intelligent assistants, data-centric AI, workflow composition, and human-centered analytics developed in manufacturing environments as the starting point. Particular attention was given to approaches enabling natural-language interaction with distributed data ecosystems and dynamic discovery, composition, and execution of data resources and research workflows. These capabilities were mapped against the characteristics and requirements of modern environmental RIs.

Preliminary results indicate that several architectural principles developed for intelligent assistants are directly transferable to RIs. Based on these principles, a five-layer framework is proposed: (1) Data layer: FAIR datasets, observations, models, and metadata; (2) Knowledge layer: semantic annotations, ontologies, provenance, and domain knowledge; (3) Discovery layer: AI-assisted identification of datasets, tools, workflows, and computing resources; (4) Orchestration layer: dynamic composition and execution of research workflows; (5) Interaction layer: natural-language interfaces providing human-in-the-loop support. In the proposed framework, intelligent assistants function as orchestration and interaction mechanisms between researchers and ecosystem data infrastructures. Researchers formulate information needs in domain language, while the underlying system discovers, combines, and executes appropriate data and modelling resources, exposing results and provenance. Such assistants have the potential to facilitate data discovery, support experiment planning, accelerate knowledge synthesis, and lower technical barriers to the reuse of increasingly complex environmental RIs.

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Authors

Prof. Federica Mandreoli (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) Špela Brglez (Coordatus, Slovenia & University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy)

Presentation materials

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