University of Amsterdam (UvA) in the Netherlands will participate in the project through the Department of Computer Science of the Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics and Astronomy (WINS). Within this department various groups work on projects related to the application of computer systems in science and industry. The principal research areas in the Department of Computer Science include: high performance computing and architecture of parallel computing systems, distributed/federated information management systems, autonomous control systems mainly for mechatronics including real-time operating systems and AI techniques, multi-media information systems, image processing, computer vision, and computer graphics. UvA was invited to join the PRODNET consortium due to the extensive experience of its database group in design and development of advanced federated/distributed object-oriented database systems required by a variety of complex application domains. During the last eight years, the database group has been actively involved in several National, European, and International RTD projects. Among other national projects, the 3DOME project funded by DUTCH-HPCN, and the DIGIS project funded by Dutch-SION are of significance. Several European projects in which the database group has been involved consists of two ESPRIT III projects: ARCHON and CIM-PLATO, and two ESPRIT IV projects: PRODNET II and WATERNET. Additionally, in two other EC supported projects, namely in the basic research EC-LA project called CIMIS.net and the EC-KIT project called MASSYVE, the database group has had the opportunity of working in International consortia consisting of Brazil, Costa Rica, and several European countries. The main task of UVA within the PRODNET project consists of the general architectural design and implementation of a suitable distributed information management infrastructure to support all PRODNET VE-related functionalities. In the past the researchers of the database group have collaborated in other advanced RTD projects with several other members of the current PRODNET consortium, including the UNL and UFSC.