1. An apparatus comprising: an import module receiving an original ontology and importing said original ontology into a data store that a reasoning engine relies on for data; a scope definition module comprising a scope processor enabling a user to specify a sub-part of an ontology; a query processing component parsing a query; a storage manager enabling create, read, update, delete plus passing through reasoning functions, wherein said storage manager is operatively coupled with the import module, the scope definition module, and the query processing component; and a reasoning engine operatively coupled with the storage manager, said reasoning engine: generating an abstraction of the original ontology; and applying at least one transformation to the abstraction for producing a simplified ontology; wherein the ontology is a formal explicit description of concepts in a domain of discourse (classes or concepts), properties of each concept describing various features and attributes of the concept (slots, roles, or properties), and restrictions on slots (facets or role restrictions), defining a common vocabulary for researchers who need to share information in a domain.