LaQuAT is a collaboration between the Centre for e-Research Kings College, London and EPCC, The University of Edinburgh. It is funded by JISC via the ENGAGE project. A LaQuAT demonstrator is available on the National Grid Service. The project ran from October 2008 to March 2009.

The aim of the project was to exploit the OGSA-DAI data access and management software in the domain of epigraphy. OGSA-DAI is an open source data management product produced by OMII-UK, a UK organisation providing e-science consultancy and software. It is designed for access to and usage of distributed heterogeneous data bases and includes powerful support for distributed query processing.

Epigraphy is concerned with the study of ancient texts e.g. books, papryi, inscriptions on stone tablets or parchments. Information about these texts are gathered and stored in databases. This information includes – what the artifact is, where it was found, where it originates from, when it is thought to date from, what the incription says, and myriad other information. This data may be in relational, XML, plain-text or other non-standard formats. Different researchers may use their own formats. As there are numerous researchers in the field, the data is distributed globally.

The aim of LaQuAT was to produce a demonstator to show the applicability of OGSA-DAI in providing uniform access onto distributed heterogeneous epigraphic data resources and to allow queries to be run over these as if they were a single database.

• For further information, see the background
• For links to papers and presentations, see the dissemination pages
• For a link to our demonstrator, see the technical pages or just visit here.