Metadata has been identified as a significant issue for many applications using large volumes of complex data. As a general definition, metadata may be any information about data that minimize the efforts for administration and improve the exploitation of an information system. SMART focuses on metadata for data warehousing. It investigates the design and development of a metadata management system responsible for the management, definition and access of all different types of metadata. To this end, the following tasks have to be performed:

• collection and categorization of possible kinds of metadata required in a data warehouse
• conceptual modelling of metadata
• design and implementation of a metadata manager
• design and implementation of facilities for metadata access and definition
• evaluation and integration with the data warehouse projects from Rentenanstalt (MASY) and Zurich University (SIRIUS)

At the same time, the project attempts to enable the know-how transfer in the area of metadata and data warehousing. SMART is responsible for the organization of a working group with Swiss companies which are particularly interested in metadata management for data warehousing.