Semantic Technologies for Consolidating Structured Data and Unstructured Documents in Biodiversity Research

Over the last few years, the large-scale generation and content-focused access to data has increasingly become a driving force for scientific progress in many scientific disciplines including the life and earth sciences. Flexible information management and the support for advanced data analysis thus turn out to be keys to productive and innovative research activities. In this position paper, we argue that there is not a single semantic utility or technique that will offer the necessary support. What is needed is rather a balanced suite of semantic tools with focus on the seamless interoperability of data. Such a framework could, in the end, provide novel opportunities for carrying out science in silico rather than, only, in situ.