Table of Contents
JISC Infrastructure for Education and Research Programme: Call for Projects
October 2010
| Of Interest To:
|
Pro Vice Chancellors for (e)Learning and (e)Research
Directors of Information Services and Systems Directors of Research and Enterprise Research Managers Institutional Web Managers Repository Managers Principal Investigators in Research Teams Learning Technologists
|
Introduction
1. The Joint Information Systems Committee[1] (JISC) invites institutions to submit funding proposals for projects to improve the infrastructure for education and research.
| Strand title | Description | Of principal interest to | Funds and timescale | Appendix |
| Identity management pilots | Early adopter projects whereby institutions use the Identity Management Toolkit to assess and review their Identity Management processes and policies. | Directors of Information Services and Systems. | £200,000
3-6 projects Feb-Aug 2011 |
Appendix A Page 17 |
| Research information management | Projects to expand the community of higher education institutions and organisations which are using the CERIF standard. | Directors of Information Services and Systems;
Directors of Research and Enterprise; Research Managers. |
£300,000
4-6 projects Feb-Jul 2011 |
Appendix B Page 19 |
| Identifiers | Projects to improve the extent to which identifiers for public .ac.uk websites are planned and managed within institutions. | Directors of Information Services and Systems;
Institutional Web Managers. |
£70,000
4-7 projects Feb-Jul 2011 |
Appendix C Page 22 |
| Geospatial | Projects to increase the use of geospatial tools, infrastructure (data and services) and information for learners, teachers and researchers; to enhance tools and services and related practice as well as identifying future requirements. | Principal Investigators in Research Teams;
Heads of e-Learning and ILT Managers. |
£700,000
8-12 projects Feb-Oct 2011 |
Appendix D Page 25 |
| Infrastructure for resource discovery | Projects implementing the resource discovery taskforce vision by funding institutions to partner with libraries, archives and museums to make open metadata about their collections available in a sustainable way. | Learning Resource Managers; Librarians; Museum Managers and Archivists. | £200,000
5-6 projects Feb-Jul 2011 |
Appendix E Page 29 |
| Activity data | Projects to explore the exploitation of user activity data in the sector and to identify opportunities for institutions to improve / share services. | Directors of Information Services and Systems;
Learning Resource Managers; Librarians, Museum Managers and Archivists; Heads of e-Learning and ILT Managers; Repository Managers. |
£500,000
7-10 projects Feb-Jul 2011 £100,000 one synthesis project. Feb-Sep 2011 |
Appendix F Page 33 |
| Repositories: take-up and embedding | Projects to improve institutional services that rely on the repository by enabling take-up of the lessons and benefits from the most successful repository applications, tools and good practice. | Learning Resource Managers;
Librarians; Museum Managers and Archivists; Repository Managers |
£180,000
6-8 projects Feb-Dec 2011 |
Appendix G Page 38 |
| Preservation tools | Projects to test, validate, critique and demonstrate the use of preservation tools in live environments. | Learning Resource Managers;
Librarians, Museum Managers and Archivists; Repository Managers |
£200,000
3-5 projects Feb-Jul 2011 |
Appendix H Page 41 |
| Preservation of complex visual digital materials and environments | A project to produce a definition and description of the effective preservation of complex visual digital materials, and develop recommendations for practice. | Learning Resource Managers; Librarians, Museum Managers and Archivists;
Principal Investigators in Research Teams |
£130,000
1 project Feb 2011 – Mar 2012 |
Appendix I Page 44 |
| Sustaining “at risk” online resources | Projects to transition “at risk” resources to new sustainability models to ensure their on-going availability and use and to build up sustainability case studies and practice for others to learn from. | Learning Resource Managers; Librarians, Museum Managers and Archivists;
Repository Managers. |
£100,000
4-10 projects Feb-Jul 2011 |
Appendix J Page 47 |
2. The deadline for receipt of proposals in response to this call is 12:00 noon UK time on Monday 15th November.
3. Funding is available for projects starting from 1st February 2011 for 2-12 months, as noted in the table above.
4. A briefing paper has been produced to accompany this grant funding call, and is available on the JISC website. Bidders are strongly advised to read the relevant areas of the briefing paper alongside this call document.
5. The JISC is holding a community briefing event where potential bidders will be given information about the background to the call, its objectives and the bidding process. Attendees will also have an opportunity to ask questions of JISC executive staff. This meeting will take place on Monday 11th October 2010, 1000-1630 at London House [http://www.londonhouse.org.uk/], Goodenough College, London. The morning of the meeting will be devoted to presentations and questions about the various areas of the call. The afternoon will be devoted to networking and discussion sessions on useful topics for bidders. There will also be an opportunity for one-to-one discussions with JISC programme managers. Members of the community are invited to register for the meeting at https://www.eventsforce.net/jisc/frontend/reg/thome.csp?pageID=17809&eventID=70. The total number of participants at the briefing event is restricted so institutions should register early.
[1] Further information on JISC is available at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk
The Joint Information Systems Committee[1] (JISC) invites institutions to submit funding proposals for projects to improve the infrastructure for education and research. Strand title Description Of principal interest to Funds and timescale Appendix Identity management pilots Early adopter projects whereby institutions use the Identity Management Toolkit to assess and review their Identity Management processes and policies. Directors of Information Services and [...]
6. Proposals may be submitted by HE institutions funded via HEFCE, SFC, HEFCW and DEL Northern Ireland, and by FE institutions funded via SFC, DCELLS Wales and DEL Northern Ireland. FE institutions in England that teach HE to more than 400 FTEs are also eligible to bid provided proposals demonstrate how the work supports the HE in FE agenda. 7. Proposals may be from single institutions or consortia unless indicated otherwise in the relevant call. Partnership arrangements may be develo [...]
8. JISC supports higher and further education by providing strategic guidance, advice and opportunities to use Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to support research, teaching, learning and administration. JISC is funded by all the UK post-16 and higher education funding councils. 9. The JISC’s vision is one of easy and widespread access to information and resources, anytime, anywhere: a vision with technology and information management at the heart of research and educatio [...]
13. JISC intends to fund projects and activities that help to improve the infrastructure for education and research. Funding is available for the period 1st February 2011 to 31st March 2012. Time-scales for projects vary according to the call area. 14. This grant funding call marks the take-up phase of some recent innovations (such as repository tools), and an exploratory phase in others (such as activity data). In both cases, and to ensure skills and capacity are supported widely acr [...]
20. Proposals will be evaluated according to criteria in the table below: Evaluation Criteria Questions Evaluators will be Considering Appropriateness and Fit to Programme Objectives and Overall Value to JISC Community – the extent to which the proposal addresses the issues and demands outlined in the call, and shows innovation as appropriate; the extent to which the project outcomes will be of overall value to the HE and research communities (25%). Is the proposal in sco [...]
21. The content of the proposal should reflect the evaluation criteria as set out above. To assist in the assessment of all proposals against a common baseline, proposals should be structured as follows: a. Cover Sheet – all proposals must include a completed cover sheet (Appendix N) which is included in the proposal as part of the overall maximum page limit. b. Appropriateness and Fit to Programme Objectives and Overall Value to the JISC Community – this section [...]
22. Consultants may be part of project proposals, although JISC innovation funding is intended to develop and embed practice and skills within higher education institutions. In this context, proposals should be clear about the role and contribution of consultants to the project. 23. Projects are expected to allocate at least 10 person-days per year and related expenses to engage in programme-level activities. In particular, all projects are expected to attend programme meetings and re [...]
24. Bidders should be aware of the range of JISC services that may be relevant to provide advice, guidance or support dependant upon the proposal being submitted. Further information on JISC’s advisory services (JISC Advance), including the Regional Support Centres, can be found at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/services/jiscadvance.aspx.
Open Standards 25. Open standards should be used wherever possible, and any deviation from these should be justified in the proposal and any alternative interface specifications should be designed with re-use by others in mind. The JISC recognises that emergent technologies lack the maturity of standards of some existing technologies. Interoperability and data transfer are key to the provision of next generation technologies for education and research, and projects are expected to work wit [...]
31. All projects have an element of risk. Even in the best-planned projects there are uncertainties, and unexpected events can occur. A risk can be defined as: “The threat or possibility that an action or event will adversely or beneficially affect the ability to achieve objectives.” 32. A risk analysis when putting together a bid will help you predict the risks that could prevent a project from delivering on time or even failing. It will also help you to manage the risks sho [...]
35. JISC innovation projects are funded in UK higher education institutions on the basis of full economic costs. Bids from these institutions should therefore be constructed on a full economic cost (fEC) basis using the TRAC methodology. An example budget for bidders to use can be found in Appendix M. 36. Other institutions submitting bids should use their usual costing and pricing practices but all costs should be clear and transparent, clarifying the number of days each individual wor [...]
41. JISC is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Therefore potential bidders should be aware that information submitted by them to JISC during this tender process, and throughout the life of any project subsequently funded, may be disclosed upon receipt of a valid request. 42. JISC will not disclose any information received during this bidding process whilst the evaluation of the bids received is still underway. The evaluation process is still deemed to be active until s [...]
44. JISC will oversee and monitor the progress of projects. All projects will be expected to follow JISC’s Generic Terms and Conditions of Grant. A copy of this is attached at Appendix L to this document. It is the bidders’ responsibility to read this. 45. All projects will be managed following JISC project management guidance, which can be found at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/proj_manguide . These guidelines may also be of use to bidders when putting together a project proposal. [...]
47. As a general rule, JISC does not seek to retain IPR in the project and/or service outputs created as part of its programmes. However, funding is always made available on the condition that project outputs are made available, free at the point of use (or ‘at cost’ where appropriate), to the UK HE, FE and Research community in perpetuity and in accordance with JISC’s Open Access and/or JISC’s Open Source Software Policy wherever possible, and that these outputs may be disseminated wi [...]
50. JISC supports unrestricted access to the published output of publicly-funded research and wishes to encourage open access to research outputs to ensure that the fruits of UK research are made more widely available. JISC firmly believes in the value of repositories as a means of improving access to the results of publicly-funded research and is investing significantly in this area. JISC expects that the full text of all published research papers and conference proceedings arising from JIS [...]
51. A guide to bidding for JISC projects can be found at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/bidguide 52. The deadline for receipt of submissions is 12:00 noon UK time on Monday 15th November 2010. Late proposals will NOT be accepted. It is the responsibility of the bidder to ensure that the proposal has arrived by the deadline stated. The JISC Executive will strictly adhere to this policy. There will be no appeals process for late bids. In light of this, it is recommended that bidders plan to submit [...]
63. A selection panel will be established to review the bids received. A standard marksheet and guidance for markers is prepared for each evaluation process. This is to help to ensure a common approach from evaluators and to clarify the evaluation criteria, and definitions for the different marks it is possible to award. There are a number of sections which the evaluator is required to complete to inform decisions: a score for each evaluation criterion; detailed comments to clarify the mark aw [...]
68. When submitting your bid, we recommend you check the following points: i. Have you completed the cover sheet (see relevant appendix)? ii. Have you followed the bid format outlined? iii. Have you paragraph- and section-numbered your proposal? iv. Have you read JISC’s Generic Terms and Conditions of Grant [...]
70. General enquiries about the bid submission process should be sent to: Laura Smyth (email: l.smyth@jisc.ac.uk tel: 0117 931 7451) 71. The JISC is holding a community briefing event where potential bidders will be given information about the background to the call, its objectives and the bidding process. Attendees will also have an opportunity to ask questions of JISC executive staff. This meeting will take place on Monday 11th October 2010, 1000-1630 at London House [http://www. [...]
Background and rationale 1. The demands on universities’ and colleges’ policies on identity and authorisation are increasing due to new services (both within and outside the sector) and a more educated sector. The JISC Identity Management Toolkit[1] was designed to assist with these issues, and formed one part of the JISC Access and Identity Management Programme[2], which focused on process, policy and technology, exploring innovative new areas in all three. The work forms a natural compl [...]
Background and rationale 1. In a time of constrained resources, the informed, strategic management of research is essential. Such management requires reliable information, for benchmarking, planning and external reporting. Many institutions are investing in IT infrastructure and business processes to address this requirement. However, without the appropriate use of open technical standards, information will not be available to the right people at the right time. A strong case has been [...]
Background and rationale 1. Higher and Further Education Institutions create new pages on their public ac.uk websites every day[1]. The management of these websites continues to grow in complexity and size, especially as editorial control is devolved to more departments and institutional staff. While providing staff (especially highly-rated researchers and lecturers) with an institutional place to put their content is important to the public reputation of the institution, it is also essenti [...]
Background and rationale 1. Location is a fundamental concept that underpins analysis within research, teaching and learning. Because of this, geospatial tools and data can form a core component of research, teaching and learning in almost any discipline. The applicability of geospatial tools and data has been recognised by individuals (via geo-tagging[1], use of services such as Google Maps/Earth[2], and Sat-Navs), communities (Open Street Map[3], Geo-Caching[4]) and via government initiat [...]
Background and rationale 1. JISC, RLUK and partners have released a vision for infrastructure to support resource discovery and related services in Higher Education libraries, museums and archives. This vision focuses on the provision and aggregation of open metadata to support innovative and flexible services for researchers, teachers and students. The resource discovery taskforce blog[1] describes the process and the context for this vision: JISC and partners will be funding work to realise [...]
Background and rationale 1. Commercial companies such as Amazon and Tesco have made a great success of exploiting their data about customer activities to improve services to customers, manage stock and support decision making. Recent research and projects have suggested that similar opportunities may exist for Higher Education institutions in managing their research, learning, information and administrative services. The briefing paper discusses this background in more detail. Further experim [...]
Background and rationale 1. JISC has been working towards a vision of a rich scholarly communications and learning environment that is supported by an extensive network of repositories, where content is widely available and can be re-used. JISC believes that there is now a solid foundation for UK repository infrastructure that consists of institutional repositories, subject repositories, software, tools, skills and shared services. This infrastructure is described in more detail in the brie [...]
Background and rationale 1. The preservation and curation community, in combination with records and information specialists, and ICT practitioners, have expended a great deal of effort over the last 15 years investigating and developing the most effective way of preserving digital resources. Many tools and resources have been produced and a number of them have significantly increased in maturity over the last five years in particular (see briefing paper for links to lists of tools). Improved [...]
Background and rationale 1. While there has been a lot of work around core and common digital resources such as papers, research data etc, the preservation of more complex environments that are used in research and learning has not had as much focus and is more challenging. As these types of digital environments become more commonplace and central to research and learning it is essential to deal with this gap as the ramifications of not doing so will have a significant impact. Overarching ai [...]
Background and rationale 1. Sustainability of online resources is a key challenge faced by organisations and content providers. In the current climate unplanned changes in ownership and funding will put valuable resources at risk of being lost. JISC is offering a limited number of small transition grants to ensure continued access to ‘at risk’ online resources that are of value to UK further or higher education. Through these projects we aim to help to sustain valuable resources and to [...]