Jacco van Ossenbruggen

Prof. Jacco van Ossenbruggen is a Full Professor in Intelligent Information Systems at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), affiliated with the Network Institute. He serves on the Management Board of ODISSEI, a national research infrastructure for social sciences and economics. His academic background includes a PhD in Computer Science (2001) from VU’s Faculty of Science, focusing on hypermedia processing.

Research Interests: His work centers on cultural AI, FAIR data principles, ontology engineering, and semantic web technologies. Key areas include inclusive cultural heritage metadata, bias mitigation in AI systems, and knowledge discovery via linked data. Recent projects involve leveraging large language models (LLMs) for metadata enrichment and ontology construction.

Key Contributions: He leads initiatives like the Cultural AI Lab, exploring AI applications for cultural heritage. His research bridges technical innovations (e.g., semantic integration of restricted-access data) with societal impacts (e.g., ethical AI frameworks for public-sector applications).

• Developed frameworks for evaluating entity alignment in knowledge graphs
• Pioneered FAIR-aligned data management plans for scientific communities
• Designed tools like Alter Heritage for collaborative metadata curation

Grants & Projects: Principal Investigator of the ODISSEI Portal project (2020–2024), advancing open data infrastructures. Active in funding initiatives promoting reproducible research and ethical data practices.

Labs/Teams: Cultural AI Lab at VU, focusing on AI-driven solutions for cultural heritage preservation and accessibility.