In this podcast, Owen White, one the judges of the technology start-ups category of Jisc’s 2015 Summer of Student Innovation competition, tells us about the winning applicants. Read the original blog post.
via Jisc news
After 13 years delivering and sharing content to support teaching practitioners across higher education, further education and skills, Jisc will be retiring its Jorum service in September 2016.
Keith Cole, executive director Jisc digital resources said:
“After careful consideration and to meet the needs of our users we are refreshing our open educational resources approach.
Over the coming months Jisc will be testing and looking into the possibility of: bringing together existing resources and enabling educators to discuss, rate and use items within their own environments; building on our customers and users’ views that they are looking for forums and engagement spaces to be able to share resources peer to peer; and developing and making continual professional development for practitioners available.
We are exploring the desire from our customers to use a Jisc App and Content store, which will still be free to access, a digital platform where our customers can blog, share and discuss challenges and solutions as well as a further education online academy. The idea behind these different approaches is to develop digital literacy and confidence in using technology, bring together existing resources and allow crowdsourcing to promote the sharing of ideas and resource amongst the education and research community.
These changes are in response to the changing digital demands of our community. It is clear that Jorum has helped the sector take great strides towards understanding the potential and also the real challenges to sharing and discovering open educational resources.
We have consulted with stakeholders, users and the Jorum technical team who agree that with the evolution of apps and platforms which give greater user functionality and interactivity a next generation version will be welcomed.
We will now be working to archive the 16,000 resources available through Jorum and ensure that quality content is moved into our new platforms.”
For more information on our open educational resources offer contact our customer services team on 0203 006 6077.
via Jisc news
After 13 years delivering and sharing content to support teaching practitioners across higher education, further education and skills, Jisc will be retiring its Jorum service in September 2016.
Keith Cole, executive director Jisc digital resources said:
“After careful consideration and to meet the needs of our users we are refreshing our open educational resources approach.
Over the coming months Jisc will be testing and looking into the possibility of: bringing together existing resources and enabling educators to discuss, rate and use items within their own environments; building on our customers and users’ views that they are looking for forums and engagement spaces to be able to share resources peer to peer; and developing and making continual professional development for practitioners available.
We are exploring the desire from our customers to use a Jisc App and Content store, which will still be free to access, a digital platform where our customers can blog, share and discuss challenges and solutions as well as a further education online academy. The idea behind these different approaches is to develop digital literacy and confidence in using technology, bring together existing resources and allow crowdsourcing to promote the sharing of ideas and resource amongst the education and research community.
These changes are in response to the changing digital demands of our community. It is clear that Jorum has helped the sector take great strides towards understanding the potential and also the real challenges to sharing and discovering open educational resources.
We have consulted with stakeholders, users and the Jorum technical team who agree that with the evolution of apps and platforms which give greater user functionality and interactivity a next generation version will be welcomed.
We will now be working to archive the 16,000 resources available through Jorum and ensure that quality content is moved into our new platforms.”
For more information on our open educational resources offer contact our customer services team on 0203 006 6077.
via Jisc news
ORCID – a researcher identifier solution which enables a wide range of improvements to the scholarly communications ecosystem – will now be offered to UK higher education institutions through a national consortium arrangement operated by Jisc.
The agreement, negotiated by Jisc Collections, will enable universities to benefit from reduced ORCID membership costs and enhanced technical support. This should accelerate adoption and provide a smoother path to ORCID integration for UK universities.
It will ultimately help to transform the management, re-use, and efficiency of the UK research output by improving the integration of research systems and processes, and enhancing data quality.
More than 50 UK universities have expressed an interest in joining an ORCID consortium in 2015, with a further 22 saying they intend to join at a later stage.
Rachel Bruce, deputy chief innovation officer, Jisc, said:
“Previously it has not been possible to easily associate valuable research outputs - be they patents or papers – with their authors, collaborators and institutions. This has led to extremely inefficient research management and difficulty in identifying what has been produced.
The result? Ineffective reporting and sharing of research, which impacts on both individual researcher’s and universities’ profiles.
Wider adoption and use of ORCID is the solution, helping the UK continue to deliver a first-class research system and offering other benefits, such as additional cost savings and efficiencies.”
Acting as a hub that connects with institutional, funder, publisher, and other researcher identifier systems, ORCID supports the reuse of data through the automation of processes and data exchange.
Feedback from a recent pilot study with eight UK universities showed that organisations that have adopted ORCID expect to see measurable efficiency improvements within two years of implementation - especially in internal data quality, streamlining of publications management, and enhanced reporting to funders – with accrued benefits increasing steadily over the following three to four years.
The importance of this endeavor to research is also demonstrated by the increasing number of funders requesting ORCID identifiers on grant applications. The Wellcome Trust will make ORCID a mandatory requirement from August 2015, while both HEFCE and Research Councils UK (RCUK) have shown high levels of support for the initiative.
In addition, the envisaged enhancements to systems and processes integrating ORCID should also play an important role in helping universities respond to funders’ open access (OA) policies, for example as part of the next Research Excellence Framework (REF), supporting the move towards an open culture.
Universities see ORCID as a crucial service, easing the workload of their researchers in ensuring compliance with OA mandates, making research more visible and discoverable, and creating opportunities for international and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
With the launch of the consortium, underpinned by increasing buy-in at a policy, as well as practical, level, the adoption of ORCID in the UK has reached a tipping point. Rachel Bruce continued,
“As part of our work with UK universities and funders, there is now a consensus that ORCID is the optimal researcher identifier system. These discussions have also identified a strong demand for Jisc to establish a UK consortium to ensure that the inherent benefits of widespread ORCID adoption are realised.
I’m extremely pleased we are now able to offer this arrangement that will contribute to better research information management in the UK.”
ORCID is a global, open, not-for-profit, community-driven effort developed closely with and for the research community.
ORCID provides additional use cases and detailed documentation on implementation in university or research institution research information systems.
Josh Brown, ORCID’s regional director for Europe, said,
“This agreement is a tremendous step forward for ORCID and all our partners in the UK. We are very excited to welcome the new members and integrations to our global community.
As well as webinars and workshops to help UK HEIs to make the most of this opportunity, we will be helping to develop new services for researchers and research data via our European projects and Jisc’s research data spring.”
To find out how to sign up for national consortium membership visit the Jisc Collections website.
via Jisc news
ORCID – a researcher identifier solution which enables a wide range of improvements to the scholarly communications ecosystem – will now be offered to UK higher education institutions through a national consortium arrangement operated by Jisc.
The agreement, negotiated by Jisc Collections, will enable universities to benefit from reduced ORCID membership costs and enhanced technical support. This should accelerate adoption and provide a smoother path to ORCID integration for UK universities.
It will ultimately help to transform the management, re-use, and efficiency of the UK research output by improving the integration of research systems and processes, and enhancing data quality.
More than 50 UK universities have expressed an interest in joining an ORCID consortium in 2015, with a further 22 saying they intend to join at a later stage.
Rachel Bruce, deputy chief innovation officer, Jisc, said:
“Previously it has not been possible to easily associate valuable research outputs - be they patents or papers – with their authors, collaborators and institutions. This has led to extremely inefficient research management and difficulty in identifying what has been produced.
The result? Ineffective reporting and sharing of research, which impacts on both individual researcher’s and universities’ profiles.
Wider adoption and use of ORCID is the solution, helping the UK continue to deliver a first-class research system and offering other benefits, such as additional cost savings and efficiencies.”
Acting as a hub that connects with institutional, funder, publisher, and other researcher identifier systems, ORCID supports the reuse of data through the automation of processes and data exchange.
Feedback from a recent pilot study with eight UK universities showed that organisations that have adopted ORCID expect to see measurable efficiency improvements within two years of implementation - especially in internal data quality, streamlining of publications management, and enhanced reporting to funders – with accrued benefits increasing steadily over the following three to four years.
The importance of this endeavour to research is also demonstrated by the increasing number of funders requesting ORCID identifiers on grant applications. The Wellcome Trust will make ORCID a mandatory requirement from August 2015, while both HEFCE and Research Councils UK (RCUK) have shown high levels of support for the initiative.
In addition, the envisaged enhancements to systems and processes integrating ORCID should also play an important role in helping universities respond to funders’ open access (OA) policies, for example as part of the next Research Excellence Framework (REF), supporting the move towards an open culture.
Universities see ORCID as a crucial service, easing the workload of their researchers in ensuring compliance with OA mandates, making research more visible and discoverable, and creating opportunities for international and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
With the launch of the consortium, underpinned by increasing buy-in at a policy, as well as practical, level, the adoption of ORCID in the UK has reached a tipping point. Rachel Bruce continued,
“As part of our work with UK universities and funders, there is now a consensus that ORCID is the optimal researcher identifier system. These discussions have also identified a strong demand for Jisc to establish a UK consortium to ensure that the inherent benefits of widespread ORCID adoption are realised.
I’m extremely pleased we are now able to offer this arrangement that will contribute to better research information management in the UK.”
ORCID is a global, open, not-for-profit, community-driven effort developed closely with and for the research community.
ORCID provides additional use cases and detailed documentation on implementation in university or research institution research information systems.
Josh Brown, ORCID’s regional director for Europe, said,
“This agreement is a tremendous step forward for ORCID and all our partners in the UK. We are very excited to welcome the new members and integrations to our global community.
As well as webinars and workshops to help UK HEIs to make the most of this opportunity, we will be helping to develop new services for researchers and research data via our European projects and Jisc’s research data spring.”
To find out how to sign up for national consortium membership visit the Jisc Collections website.
via Jisc news
Teams of apprentices from Training 2000 and Sparsholt College have been named as winners of a national competition to come up with ideas for new digital tools and apps for work-based learning.
Both teams have been given £20,000 funding and will receive support from Jisc experts and the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) after winning the apprentice-led ideas category in the Summer of Student Innovation, an annual competition that gives learners the chance to create solutions that could change the education and training landscape forever.
The winning ideas are Licence to Learn and Connected Apprentice.
Licence to Learn is a game-based app designed by a group of apprentices at Training 2000, a UK training association for business apprentices. It offers a more creative and entertaining way of studying by gamifying revision and rewarding students with incentives such as free drinks, prizes and vouchers for successfully completing tasks.
Connected Apprentice is a social networking-type platform from learners at Sparsholt College in Hampshire, which allows apprentices, employers and learning providers to connect and communicate with each other. It is thought this should help reduce apprenticeship drop-out rates by allowing them to easily ask questions and get support.
Jisc and AELP will also work to support the projects at a series of workshops? to help make them a reality before inviting both teams to present at the AELP Technology Conference in November – anything else?
Paul Bailey, senior co-design manager, Jisc said:
“The apprentice-led ideas challenge was created to go direct to apprentices and trainees, to find out how they think technology can improve their learning experiences and help them develop tangible solutions.
The two winning groups both evidenced excellent understanding of some of the major issues facing apprentices today. They put forward innovative ideas using digital technologies which could offer real benefits to apprentices, employers and learning providers.
The next stage will involve working closely with the successful teams to help hone their products. I look forward to seeing how their concepts develop over the coming months.”
Chris Swingler, AELP associate said:
“This is the first year apprentices have been invited to submit their ideas to the Jisc challenge and we’ve been delighted with the range of innovative and creative ideas from all the teams clearly demonstrating how effective technology based tools and aids can support their learning experience and benefit the whole sector.
AELP is looking forward to working with the winning teams to develop their ideas further and to showcase the projects later in the year.”
The winners will be announced at the AELP national conference, which takes place on 22 and 23 June.
For more information visit the Summer of Student Innovation web pages.
via Jisc news
Teams of apprentices from Training 2000 and Sparsholt College have been named as winners of a national competition to come up with ideas for new digital tools and apps for work-based learning.
Both teams have been given £20,000 funding and will receive support from Jisc experts and the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) after winning the apprentice-led ideas category in the Summer of Student Innovation, an annual competition that gives learners the chance to create solutions that could change the education and training landscape forever.
The winning ideas are Licence to Learn and Connected Apprentice.
Licence to Learn is a game-based app designed by a group of apprentices at Training 2000, a UK training association for business apprentices. It offers a more creative and entertaining way of studying by gamifying revision and rewarding students with incentives such as free drinks, prizes and vouchers for successfully completing tasks.
Connected Apprentice is a social networking-type platform from learners at Sparsholt College in Hampshire, which allows apprentices, employers and learning providers to connect and communicate with each other. It is thought this should help reduce apprenticeship drop-out rates by allowing them to easily ask questions and get support.
Jisc and AELP will also work to support the projects at a series of workshops to help make them a reality before inviting both teams to present at the AELP Technology Conference in November.
Paul Bailey, senior co-design manager, Jisc said:
“The apprentice-led ideas challenge was created to go direct to apprentices and trainees, to find out how they think technology can improve their learning experiences and help them develop tangible solutions.
The two winning groups both evidenced excellent understanding of some of the major issues facing apprentices today. They put forward innovative ideas using digital technologies which could offer real benefits to apprentices, employers and learning providers.
The next stage will involve working closely with the successful teams to help hone their products. I look forward to seeing how their concepts develop over the coming months.”
Chris Swingler, AELP associate said:
“This is the first year apprentices have been invited to submit their ideas to the Jisc challenge and we’ve been delighted with the range of innovative and creative ideas from all the teams clearly demonstrating how effective technology based tools and aids can support their learning experience and benefit the whole sector.
AELP is looking forward to working with the winning teams to develop their ideas further and to showcase the projects later in the year.”
The winners will be announced at the AELP national conference, which takes place on 22 and 23 June.
For more information visit the Summer of Student Innovation web pages.
via Jisc news
A project by The Open University that’s revolutionising the production and use of audio/visual material was last night named a winner in the Times Higher Leadership and Management Awards 2015, at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.
The university won in the Digital Innovation of the Year category – which celebrates excellent use of digital technology to improve the administration or management of an institution, sponsored by Jisc – for its flagship production portal.
The portal has been designed to make it easier to discover and re-use material, while also simplifying the workflow associated with re-use, such as costings and rights clearances.
Approximately 200 production staff use the cloud-based production portal to manage the vast body of audio/visual material available to students and the general public. Over 40 years’ worth of the university’s archive material has now been migrated to the portal, and more than 2,000 projects and 38,000 third party clearances logged.
Martin Hamilton, futurist at Jisc and judge of the award, said:
“Rights management for audio/visual content is a major issue for all institutions, given the enormous growth of digital media in teaching and learning.
It’s great to see how The Open University has exploited technology to simplify these processes and also control the risk of litigation and reputational damage that might arise from inappropriate re-use of third party material.”
The judging panel was particularly impressed with the rights management aspects of the portal – an issue that was becoming increasingly important for universities delivering online content and MOOCs.
Martin added:
“At Jisc we are seeing institutions moving more and more towards online education and blended learning. The production portal has great potential for transferability, across both higher and further education.”
Alma Hales, head of intellectual property at The Open University said:
“We are absolutely delighted to have won the Digital Innovation of the Year award, and to have our production portal recognised by the sector as a game-changer.
As a world-leader in flexible distance learning, with over 40 years of video and sound content, the portal has provided The Open University with an invaluable way to both organise our content and to track our intellectual property.”
Visit the Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Awards website to see the full list of winners.
via Jisc news
A project by The Open University that’s revolutionising the production and use of audio/visual material was last night named a winner in the Times Higher Leadership and Management Awards 2015, at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.
The university won in the Digital Innovation of the Year category – which celebrates excellent use of digital technology to improve the administration or management of an institution, sponsored by Jisc – for its flagship production portal.
The portal has been designed to make it easier to discover and re-use material, while also simplifying the workflow associated with re-use, such as costings and rights clearances.
Approximately 200 production staff use the cloud-based production portal to manage the vast body of audio/visual material available to students and the general public. Over 40 years’ worth of the university’s archive material has now been migrated to the portal, and more than 2,000 projects and 38,000 third party clearances logged.
Martin Hamilton, futurist at Jisc and judge of the award, said:
“Rights management for audio/visual content is a major issue for all institutions, given the enormous growth of digital media in teaching and learning.
It’s great to see how The Open University has exploited technology to simplify these processes and also control the risk of litigation and reputational damage that might arise from inappropriate re-use of third party material.”
The judging panel was particularly impressed with the rights management aspects of the portal – an issue that was becoming increasingly important for universities delivering online content and MOOCs.
Martin added:
“At Jisc we are seeing institutions moving more and more towards online education and blended learning. The production portal has great potential for transferability, across both higher and further education.”
Alma Hales, head of intellectual property at The Open University said:
“We are absolutely delighted to have won the Digital Innovation of the Year award, and to have our production portal recognised by the sector as a game-changer.
As a world-leader in flexible distance learning, with over 40 years of video and sound content, the portal has provided The Open University with an invaluable way to both organise our content and to track our intellectual property.”
Visit the Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Awards website to see the full list of winners.
via Jisc news
This week, Eric Stoller, student affairs and technology blogger for Inside Higher Ed, returns for his second guest podcast and blog on how effective use of social media can improve the student experience. Read the original blog post.
via Jisc news
This week, Eric Stoller, student affairs and technology blogger for Inside Higher Ed, returns for his second guest podcast and blog on how effective use of social media can improve the student experience. Read the original blog post.
via Jisc news
Today, the first Vietsch Foundation medals of honour have been awarded to Andrew Cormack, chief regulatory adviser at Jisc and Roland Hedberg, senior researcher at the University of Umeå in Sweden.
They were honoured for outstanding contributions during their careers to the development of the internet:
The medals were presented during the closing plenary session of TNC, the major European conference on research and education networking that is organised annually by GÉANT.
Creative Commons attribution information
Andrew CormackAll rights reserved Andrew Cormack
Andrew Cormack, chief regulatory adviser at Jisc, contributed to the establishment of TF-CSIRT, the European forum for security incident response. More recently, his interest in legal matters put him in the unique position to bring together computer security and legal disciplines.
Andrew was instrumental in the creation of the successful TRANSITS course on security incident response, which has trained more than 500 individuals in Europe and many more around the world, meaning the internet is a more secure place.
Roland Hedberg is a senior researcher at the University of Umeå in Sweden. Roland has played a key role in contributing his expertise from the research and education networking community to standard industry deployments of federated identity management, an essential component of AAI.
He developed the OpenID Connect conformance test suite, which was adopted by the OpenID Foundation and became the de facto reference implementation. OpenID Connect is a new standard, only a year old, but it sees good traction and is rapidly becoming the protocol to use for protecting web-based application.
Valentino Cavalli, chair of the board of trustees of the Vietsch Foundation, which promotes the research and development of advanced Internet technology for scientific research and higher education, said,
“it was a tough choice for the board to make, amongst the number of nominations received for this year’s medal, but there was very little hesitation in recognising the equal value of Andrew’s and Roland’s work. They were also both directly involved in the activities of TERENA, the organisation that was shaped by the late Karel Vietsch, and both had the opportunity to work with him.
The results of their work are reaching different sectors and environments, and it is a thrilling opportunity for the Vietsch Foundation to be able to make itself known in those communities.”
Tim Kidd, executive director of Jisc technologies comments:
“I am delighted that Andrew has been recognised by the Vietsch Foundation for his outstanding contribution to the development of the Internet. At Jisc we believe that our education and research communities deserve the highest standard of help and support to ensure that they can truly take advantage of new technologies.
Andrew’s work has been fundamental in ensuring that academics, researchers and students can use the internet as safely as possible.”
via Jisc news
Today, the first Vietsch Foundation medals of honour have been awarded to Andrew Cormack, chief regulatory adviser at Jisc and Roland Hedberg, senior researcher at the University of Umeå in Sweden.
They were honoured for outstanding contributions during their careers to the development of the internet:
The medals were presented during the closing plenary session of TNC, the major European conference on research and education networking that is organised annually by GÉANT.
Creative Commons attribution information
Andrew CormackAll rights reserved Andrew Cormack
Andrew Cormack, chief regulatory adviser at Jisc, contributed to the establishment of TF-CSIRT, the European forum for security incident response. More recently, his interest in legal matters put him in the unique position to bring together computer security and legal disciplines.
Andrew was instrumental in the creation of the successful TRANSITS course on security incident response, which has trained more than 500 individuals in Europe and many more around the world, meaning the internet is a more secure place.
Roland Hedberg is a senior researcher at the University of Umeå in Sweden. Roland has played a key role in contributing his expertise from the research and education networking community to standard industry deployments of federated identity management, an essential component of AAI.
He developed the OpenID Connect conformance test suite, which was adopted by the OpenID Foundation and became the de facto reference implementation. OpenID Connect is a new standard, only a year old, but it sees good traction and is rapidly becoming the protocol to use for protecting web-based application.
Valentino Cavalli, chair of the board of trustees of the Vietsch Foundation, which promotes the research and development of advanced Internet technology for scientific research and higher education, said,
“it was a tough choice for the board to make, amongst the number of nominations received for this year’s medal, but there was very little hesitation in recognising the equal value of Andrew’s and Roland’s work. They were also both directly involved in the activities of TERENA, the organisation that was shaped by the late Karel Vietsch, and both had the opportunity to work with him.
The results of their work are reaching different sectors and environments, and it is a thrilling opportunity for the Vietsch Foundation to be able to make itself known in those communities.”
Tim Kidd, executive director of Jisc technologies comments:
“I am delighted that Andrew has been recognised by the Vietsch Foundation for his outstanding contribution to the development of the Internet. At Jisc we believe that our education and research communities deserve the highest standard of help and support to ensure that they can truly take advantage of new technologies.
Andrew’s work has been fundamental in ensuring that academics, researchers and students can use the internet as safely as possible.”
via Jisc news
Jisc is helping to support the e-assessment advisory group (EAAG) in reflecting on current practice and processes relating to e-assessment. Here Nigel Ecclesfield, head of change implementation support programmes – FE and skills, talks about the survey, who should get involved, and how.
via Jisc news
Jisc is helping to support the e-assessment advisory group (EAAG) in reflecting on current practice and processes relating to e-assessment. Here Nigel Ecclesfield, head of change implementation support programmes – FE and skills, talks about the survey, who should get involved, and how.
via Jisc news
This summer, for the first time, students with print-impairments will be able to take digital exams if this is their normal way of working. Alistair McNaught, subject specialist, talks about the changes and what learners and organisations need to do to take advantage. Read the original blog post.
via Jisc news
This summer, for the first time, students with print-impairments will be able to take digital exams if this is their normal way of working. Alistair McNaught, subject specialist, talks about the changes and what learners and organisations need to do to take advantage. Read the original blog post.
via Jisc news
In a guest podcast for Jisc, Eric Stoller, student affairs and technology blogger for Inside Higher Ed, talks about Yik Yak and the rise of anonymous social media. Read the original blog post.
via Jisc news
In a guest podcast for Jisc, Eric Stoller, student affairs and technology blogger for Inside Higher Ed, talks about Yik Yak and the rise of anonymous social media. Read the original blog post.
via Jisc news
HEFCE has launched a new interactive mapping service to help universities and colleges collaborate with business.
The six maps – which chart the size, industry sector and characteristics of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in England – will allow organisations to search for start-ups in their local area and identify companies that have a high synergy with their own research, to create partnerships that are mutually beneficial.
Jisc welcomes the release of the maps as further support for industry-academia collaboration. This builds on the work the charity is doing, supported by HEFCE, to accelerate engagement across the sectors and reduce the friction of sharing assets and resources.
Martin Hamilton, futurist, Jisc, said:
“Shared service initiatives between business and academia are invaluable, and this new map helps to strengthen the work we have been delivering with and for the sector.
“Jisc is proud to play an active role in the sharing agenda, and is now working to join up two related initiatives to create a true ‘one stop shop’ for sharing between institutions and with industry. Our Kit-Catalogue pilot service helps organisations to catalogue, record and locate their assets, to make them easier to share.
"In turn, it feeds into the national equipment.data portal, which provides a shop window onto some 10,000 items of research equipment across the UK’s universities and colleges, with an estimated combined total value of around £200m. We have also brokered access to some £60m of publicly-funded high performance computing (HPC) equipment and expertise, building on the approach taken with the Brunswick Agreements.
“Easy access to high value equipment and the necessary expertise to exploit it could easily be a game changer for both start-ups and established firms. Indeed, promoting and evidencing asset and equipment sharing to organisations outside the sector was a key recommendation of Professor Sir Ian Diamond’s recent report on efficiency. This recognised that collaboration is for the good of all – helping to secure the position of UK higher education as a global leader, and creating fertile grounds in which small businesses can thrive.
“As well as harbouring substantial knowledge networks, our country’s universities and colleges benefit from world-leading facilities and infrastructure, including Jisc’s Janet network, which provides resilient, high-capacity internet connectivity. There is clear benefit, then, in start-ups being able to access these resources to innovate and grow – again, something we are exploring through our Janet Reach industrial connectivity programme, funded by the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills.
“HEFCE’s SME maps will surely only help to build a picture of how universities and businesses can work better, together.”
Visit HEFCE’s website to view the maps. To hear more about Jisc’s support of frictionless sharing of equipment and expertise, come along to our seminar session at the Science and Innovation 2015 conference in London on 10 June.
via Jisc news
HEFCE has launched a new interactive mapping service to help universities and colleges collaborate with business.
The six maps – which chart the size, industry sector and characteristics of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in England – will allow organisations to search for start-ups in their local area and identify companies that have a high synergy with their own research, to create partnerships that are mutually beneficial.
Jisc welcomes the release of the maps as further support for industry-academia collaboration. This builds on the work the charity is doing, supported by HEFCE, to accelerate engagement across the sectors and reduce the friction of sharing assets and resources.
Martin Hamilton, futurist, Jisc, said:
“Shared service initiatives between business and academia are invaluable, and this new map helps to strengthen the work we have been delivering with and for the sector.
“Jisc is proud to play an active role in the sharing agenda, and is now working to join up two related initiatives to create a true ‘one stop shop’ for sharing between institutions and with industry. Our Kit-Catalogue pilot service helps organisations to catalogue, record and locate their assets, to make them easier to share.
"In turn, it feeds into the national equipment.data portal, which provides a shop window onto some 10,000 items of research equipment across the UK’s universities and colleges, with an estimated combined total value of around £200m. We have also brokered access to some £60m of publicly-funded high performance computing (HPC) equipment and expertise, building on the approach taken with the Brunswick Agreements.
“Easy access to high value equipment and the necessary expertise to exploit it could easily be a game changer for both start-ups and established firms. Indeed, promoting and evidencing asset and equipment sharing to organisations outside the sector was a key recommendation of Professor Sir Ian Diamond’s recent report on efficiency. This recognised that collaboration is for the good of all – helping to secure the position of UK higher education as a global leader, and creating fertile grounds in which small businesses can thrive.
“As well as harbouring substantial knowledge networks, our country’s universities and colleges benefit from world-leading facilities and infrastructure, including Jisc’s Janet network, which provides resilient, high-capacity internet connectivity. There is clear benefit, then, in start-ups being able to access these resources to innovate and grow – again, something we are exploring through our Janet Reach industrial connectivity programme, funded by the Department of Business, Innovation & Skills.
“HEFCE’s SME maps will surely only help to build a picture of how universities and businesses can work better, together.”
Visit HEFCE’s website to view the maps. To hear more about Jisc’s support of frictionless sharing of equipment and expertise, come along to our seminar session at the Science and Innovation 2015 conference in London on 10 June.
via Jisc news
Hear from Roger Schonfeld, director, library and scholarly communication program, at Ithaka. He tells us about the benefits available for universities who are signing up to take part in this year’s UK survey of academics and how you can get involved.
To get involved in the 2015 survey please contact Alisa Rod.
via Jisc news
Hear from Roger Schonfeld, director, library and scholarly communication program, at Ithaka. He tells us about the benefits available for universities who are signing up to take part in this year’s UK survey of academics and how you can get involved.
To get involved in the 2015 survey please contact Alisa Rod.
via Jisc news
Massachusetts based IT security consultants Painless Security is the 1000th organisation to join the UK Access Management Federation.
Operated by Jisc, the UK federation is the world’s largest federation for education and research, and their suppliers and service providers.
The UK federation offers its members’ users secure access to online resources and services through a single sign-on login, simplifying access to the services they need and protecting their privacy. It connects people from different colleges, universities and commercial providers not only in the UK, but on an international basis – linking up with federations in other countries – allowing them to share digital resources and services to authorised users.
The addition of Painless Security further emphasises the federation’s role as the largest and most diverse federation of its kind in the world. It saves its members money and creates opportunities for collaboration within the sectors served by Jisc, and between organisations in other communities, with common business interests.
Sam Hartman, principal consultant, Painless Security LLC said:
“In developing identity and access management software, Painless Security collaborates with researchers throughout the UK and Europe. By joining the UK Access Management Federation, we can gain access to collaborators' services without the cost or complexity of setting up individual accounts.
The UK Access Management Federation saves us money and time because we can leverage our existing accounts without setting up usernames and passwords and validating our organisational identity with each party we work with.”
In the UK 99.6% of universities and 86% of colleges are members of the federation. The federation is also leading in its adoption by commercial organisations, with over 240 businesses registered. These range from publishers, who use the federation to deliver their content, to providers wanting to provide special offers on services and equipment to students. Through Jisc’s leadership, the federation has made the UK a world leader in the use of this technology to support and drive the digital marketplace for the online goods and services essential to education and research today.
Mark Williams, service manager and outreach support - UK federation, said:
“Seamless and secure access to systems and services is paramount to the continued health of the education and research, which makes the UK federation vital to delivering effective access and identity management services.
To secure 1000 members is a fantastic achievement and demonstrates a healthy and growing access management federation, the largest of its kind in the world, and demonstrates Jisc’s global leadership in the field.”
North Warwickshire and Hinckley College became a member of the UK federation in 2013 and has seen considerable benefits. Lesley John, group learning resources team leader, said:
“Membership saves us a huge amount of time through not having to create individual user accounts for new students and troubleshoot problems with logins. The benefit of this can’t be underestimated. Another benefit was that we didn’t need to buy any new IT equipment throughout the implementation process and we are now saving £3,500 per year.
For our students improved accessibility has been a real advantage. They no longer have to remember multiple usernames and passwords and are able to access a broader range of information and services by using a single secure sign-on that will work at any college that is signed up to the federation. The barriers to learning they previously faced have been removed.”
The animation 'UK federation; what it is' was created to give an introduction to why the UK federation was created and the benefits of joining.
For information about how to join the UK federation visit the UK federation website.
For information about how you can implement a UK federation compatible solution, using non-proprietary, free software, visit the Shibboleth website.
via Jisc news
Massachusetts based IT security consultants Painless Security is the 1000th organisation to join the UK Access Management Federation.
Operated by Jisc, the UK federation is the world’s largest federation for education and research, and their suppliers and service providers.
The UK federation offers its members’ users secure access to online resources and services through a single sign-on login, simplifying access to the services they need and protecting their privacy. It connects people from different colleges, universities and commercial providers not only in the UK, but on an international basis – linking up with federations in other countries – allowing them to share digital resources and services to authorised users.
The addition of Painless Security further emphasises the federation’s role as the largest and most diverse federation of its kind in the world. It saves its members money and creates opportunities for collaboration within the sectors served by Jisc, and between organisations in other communities, with common business interests.
Sam Hartman, principal consultant, Painless Security LLC said:
“In developing identity and access management software, Painless Security collaborates with researchers throughout the UK and Europe. By joining the UK Access Management Federation, we can gain access to collaborators' services without the cost or complexity of setting up individual accounts.
The UK Access Management Federation saves us money and time because we can leverage our existing accounts without setting up usernames and passwords and validating our organisational identity with each party we work with.”
In the UK 99.6% of universities and 86% of colleges are members of the federation. The federation is also leading in its adoption by commercial organisations, with over 240 businesses registered. These range from publishers, who use the federation to deliver their content, to providers wanting to provide special offers on services and equipment to students. Through Jisc’s leadership, the federation has made the UK a world leader in the use of this technology to support and drive the digital marketplace for the online goods and services essential to education and research today.
Mark Williams, service manager and outreach support - UK federation, said:
“Seamless and secure access to systems and services is paramount to the continued health of the education and research, which makes the UK federation vital to delivering effective access and identity management services.
To secure 1000 members is a fantastic achievement and demonstrates a healthy and growing access management federation, the largest of its kind in the world, and demonstrates Jisc’s global leadership in the field.”
North Warwickshire and Hinckley College became a member of the UK federation in 2013 and has seen considerable benefits. Lesley John, group learning resources team leader, said:
“Membership saves us a huge amount of time through not having to create individual user accounts for new students and troubleshoot problems with logins. The benefit of this can’t be underestimated. Another benefit was that we didn’t need to buy any new IT equipment throughout the implementation process and we are now saving £3,500 per year.
For our students improved accessibility has been a real advantage. They no longer have to remember multiple usernames and passwords and are able to access a broader range of information and services by using a single secure sign-on that will work at any college that is signed up to the federation. The barriers to learning they previously faced have been removed.”
The animation 'UK federation; what it is' was created to give an introduction to why the UK federation was created and the benefits of joining.
For information about how to join the UK federation visit the UK federation website.
For information about how you can implement a UK federation compatible solution, using non-proprietary, free software, visit the Shibboleth website.
via Jisc news