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MINEit Software and the University of Ulster - both from Northern Ireland - have announced that significant funding has been secured from the European Commission's prestigious Marie Curie Research Fund. The two organisations, which have won the funding against strong European competition, have successfully proposed a European Centre of Excellence in Web Mining, to be know as Personet. Personet will be hosted in the University's new cross-faculty initiative for e-commerce in the province, the Northern Ireland Centre for e-Business - NICeB,

Personet will focus on improving the research capability in web mining across Europe, to provide a strong base for exploitation of research results and commercialisation of web mining software. The objective of personet is to bring to Northern Ireland the most promising young researchers from across Europe for training in web mining, as Northern Ireland is a leading expert research base in this area. Personet will also participate in international European conferences and workshops, to disseminate our work to the broadest possible base of the European research community.

Web mining is the use of smart software, based upon artificial intelligence, to discover information on how visitors behave when browsing web sites. Using web mining software, e-commerce web sites can be made more user-friendly, and marketing efforts for the trading of products, services and information can be otpimised.

Web mining facilitates various services for customers of e-business including automatic personalisation of the Internet by providing sites that adapt to the users' needs. In the next two years, web mining will aid personalisation of the content that people receive using the next generation of digital interactive televisions, the new M-business (Mobile) paradigm using interactive mobile telephones, and personal digital assistants.

In e-business, web mining can streamline and add value to electronic supply and procurement chains. Most importantly, web mining technology will be one of the central components that will facilitate so-called 'silent e-commerce' in the business-to-business arena, whereby much of the everyday business interaction between companies such as billing and payment is totally automated.

Personet builds upon the substantial funding won by research partnerships between MINEit and the University's School of Information and Software Engineering. In total, the two organisations have brought over a million pounds in web mining research to Northern Ireland in the past three years, creating jobs in both academic research and in industry.

Sarab Anand, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Information and Software Engineering and the University's grant holder for Personet says, "This funding is recognition from the European Commission that the work we are doing is the best in Europe, and that our research connections with over ten other research groups in Europe and more across the world are strong and vibrant".

Maurice Mulvenna, Managing Director of MINEit Software Limited says, "As a spin-off company from the University of Ulster, we maintain close collaboration with the University on research and technology development issues. We welcome Personet, which makes it possible for MINEit to innovate in product development, and to shorten the time to market for research innovations."

About MINEit Software

MINEit Software Limited is Northern Ireland's first Internet software development company and has developed leading Internet Web Intelligence product for the e-commerce market. The software - called Easyminer - lets companies analyse web site traffic and tailor content to specific users. Due for launch in May 2000 it is currently being demonstrated on the Northern Ireland Technology stand at CeBIT 2000 in Hannover.

For more information, contact

Sarab Anand, School of Information & Software Engineering, Faculty of Informatics, University of Ulster. Tel +44 28 9036 6671 Email: ss.anand@ulst.ac.uk

Maurice Mulvenna, MINEit Software Limited. Tel +44 28 9036 8876 Email: maurice@mineit.com Internet: www.mineit.com

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