Collaborative Ontology Creating Environment for Research Technology (CONCERT)

Harmonia proposes to build “CONCERT – A Collaborative Ontology Creating Environment for Research Technology.” CONCERT facilitates secure collaboration between businesses and Technical Monitors, Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Program Managers and other stakeholders in government agencies such as the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). CONCERT is designed using the principles and architecture of software ecosystems or platforms: open-ended, modular, software infrastructure that encourages third-party additions. It will serve the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the Department of Defense (DoD), the U.S. Government, and commercial enterprises in the initiation, management, securing, tracking, controlling, completing, analyzing, and reporting innovation research contracts. For the U.S Government, it will be especially suited for managing Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant programs. This Direct to Phase II project builds on multiple Harmonia past projects. One is to enable non-Common Access Card (CAC) users to submit deliverables securely to the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) using the DTIC Blockchain solution. DTIC Blockchain also traces the chain of custody of deliverables to facilitate the protection of confidential unclassified information (CUI) and classified artifacts. We also build on a Harmonia system for the Office of Naval Research, which enables the construction of a semantic web of content in collaboration artifacts such as deliverables, contract documents, email discussions of deliverables. Yet another past work CONCERT builds on is to use machine learning methods to categorize natural language content in collaboration artifacts, using Harmonia’s work for the United States Marine Corps. Rather than being a stand-alone platform, CONCERT applies an Application Programming Interface (API) First strategy to software construction, exposing CONCERT’s functionality through APIs that permit integration with populate enterprise collaboration and project management tools used at MDA and other agencies, such as Microsoft Office 365 and Atlassian’s suite. CONCERT thus enables small businesses, Technical Monitors, SBIR/STTR Portfolio Managers, and other stakeholders to access Concert functionality through the tools they know and use daily, rather than learning a new system, and minimizing the need to learn user interfaces. Approved for Public Release | 22-MDA-11102 (22 Mar 22)