ABSTRACT
Interoperable management and integration of all relevant project information is amongst the most critical issues for the success and further growth of the VO paradigm. In this paper we describe the design of an ontology framework for VOs that enables VO communication, information and process management on the basis of a common semantic vocabulary of concepts, coherently representing the data, the services, the actors, the business processes and the IT system itself. The paper presents the major components of the developed conceptual framework (core resource, service, organisational and business process ontologies), outlines the possibilities for domain extensions with specific focus on IFC, and provides a brief overview of the status of the implementation in the frames of the EU project InteliGrid (IST-004664, 2004–2007). Special emphasis is given to the explanation of major concepts modelled on the basis of the Web Ontology Language OWL and the interoperability of the developed modular ontology definitions.
