Prometheus Research Awarded National Science Foundation Grant for Easy to Use, Web-Enabled Database Software

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Dec. 17 -- Prometheus Research, a leading provider of web-enabled database software for biomedical researchers, has been awarded a $136,500 National Science Foundation grant to create a working, web-enabled database software prototype that can be installed and configured at low cost, with minimal support, and is easy to use.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded the grant to Prometheus Research for its proposed Prometheus Data Publisher, an application allowing non-technical users to web-enable entire databases, select tables or columns, and to easily render any database "browsable." In addition, it will be designed to be used with any popular database, will be easy to navigate, will allow a wide range of user-selected queries, and will share results via the Web.

The Prometheus Data Publisher is aimed initially at the scientific research community, with the goal of helping researchers share their data more easily and widely, and at less cost than other web-enabling tools. The proposed database software system will also be designed to take research data consumption to a new level, making databases transparent, interactive, and collaborative, while allowing untrained users to freely navigate and discover data without the need to develop complex, expensive applications or construct SQL queries.

A key component of the system, the Data Discovery Tool, will be developed with the NSF grant, and will allow the Prometheus Data Publisher to automatically discover the type and structure of a database. When used in conjunction with Prometheus' existing HTSQL-based server and a graphic user interface, it will support a wide range of systems, including proprietary/customized and open source databases, at the least cost, according to Dr. Leon Rozenblit, Prometheus Research founder and president. To meet NSF requirements, the prototype must also meet the high security and scalability standards set by organizations' systems and database administrators.

"For a long time there has been a need for a solution to the long-standing technical difficulty associated with accessing crucial data currently stored in standard formats," said Rozenblit after the company was awarded the NSF grant. "This grant will allow us to use our web-based software tools to create a ready-to-use method for web-enabling data, something brand new in the database industry."

While custom-built web-enabled applications are widely used by researchers today, "they require considerable expertise, substantial development time, and often large budgets," said Rozenblit. "With Data Publisher, IT managers are able to quickly and easily web enable original data and thereby enable others to access this data simply and when they want via the Web."

The technical approach to completing the grant project consists of four stages and is expected to be completed in mid-2010.

About Prometheus Research

Prometheus Research, New Haven, Conn., is a software development and professional services company innovating web-based tools to empower knowledge workers by making existing databases easily available on the web. Prometheus HTSQL quickly translates the language of the web (HTTP) into the language of databases (SQL), allowing businesses and organizations to securely access and increase their intelligence through dynamic, real-time, web-based database management. Our markets include research institutions, research funding organizations, governments, and global businesses. Prometheus Research Informatics, our biomedical applications and informatics services, is used by world-renowned researchers and simplifies development of custom informatics systems for secure access to rich scientific data.