NEWS

Aberdeen, Scotland, 1 May 2012 – The University of Aberdeen, Arria NLG Limited and Data2Text Limited announce a new collaboration amongst the parties which involved Arria NLG acquiring an equity stake in Data2Text and the formation of the Arria NLG Centre of the University of Aberdeen at a signing ceremony that was held 1 May 2012 in the conference room of the new University Library at King’s College, Old Aberdeen.

Arria NLG Limited has agreed to fund the rapid expansion of Data2Text in a range of applications, through direct investment, funding of R&D and support of the Arria NLG Centre.

The Arria NLG Centre of the University of Aberdeen which will support research and development in Natural Language Generation (“NLG”), a branch of computational linguistics. NLG automates the summarization of large data sets into easily-read, natural language reports.

The new Centre will be managed by a Research Board consisting of; Prof. Ehud Reiter, Professor of Computing Science in the University’s School of Natural Science, founder of the University’s NLG research group, and a director of Data2Text Limited; Dr. Somaya julu Sripada, Senior Lecturer in Computing Science at the University and a Director of Data2Text Limited; and Mr. Simon Small, President of Arria NLG Limited and a Director of Data2Text Limited and a representative from the University’s Research and Innovation department.

Attendees of the 1 May signing ceremony included Prof. Stephen Logan, Senior Vice-Principal of the University; Ms. Irene Bews, the University’s Director of Finance and Director of Information Technology; Mr. Ian Davy, Executive Director of Data2Text Limited; and Dr. Rattray, Prof. Reiter, Dr. Sripada and Mr. Small.

ABOUT ARRIA NLG LIMITED:
Arria NLG Limited is a London-based global software developer. The company’s products address NLG applications as well as selected big data analytics addressing a spectrum of applications.

Contact Stuart Rogers, CEO, at +44 20 7100 4540 Ext. 1020 or .

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN:
The University of Aberdeen was founded in 1495 and is the third oldest of Scotland’s universities. Its Department of Computing Science is a thriving centre of teaching and research, particularly in areas related to Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge-Based Information Management, and is part of an internationally respected academic community with a long tradition for innovation and excellence. The Department has been at the forefront of NLG research for a generation.

In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), 70% of Computing Science research at Aberdeen was assessed to be world leading and internationally excellent in terms of originality, significance and rigour (20% at 4* and 50% at 3*), with 100% of our research being internationally recognised.

Contact Shaunagh Kirby at +44 1224 272 014 or communications@abdn.ac.uk.

ABOUT DATA2TEXT LIMITED:
Data2Text Limited, a Scottish company with offices at the Meston Building, King’s College, Old Aberdeen, offers automated summarization of weather data and of large data sets in the oil and gas industry, and a universal solution to NLG challenges in a broad range of business and industrial applications. The company was founded as a spinout from the University’s Department of Computing Sciences by a team including Prof. Reiter and Dr. Sripada.

Contact Ian Davy, Managing Director, at +44 20 8144 3123 or ian.davy@data2text.com.