Supporting Further and Higher Education

Joint Information Systems Committee

JISC Strategies & Support of e-Science

for ResearchDr Malcolm Read

JISC Executive Secretary

Supporting Further and Higher Education

The JISC Mission is:

“to provide world class leadership in the innovative use of Information and Communication Technologies to support education and research”.

Supporting Further and Higher Education

JISC COMMITTEE STRUCTURE

JISC Steering Committee (assessors)

JISC* Audit Committee

Nominations Committee

Remuneration Committee

JISC Sub-Committee Chairs*

JISC Committee forLearning & Teaching (JCLT)

JISC Committee for Awareness,Liaison & Training (JCALT)

JISC Committee for the Support ofResearch (JCSR)*

JISC Committee for Networking(JCN)*

JISC Committee for InformationEnvironment (JCIE)

JISC Committee for Content & Services (JCCS)*

*Committee with RC representation

Supporting Further and Higher Education

Budget

03-04

£m Networking 28.58 Electronic Info 7.10 Content 11.41 L&T 3.90 Human & Organisation 5.92 Research 2.79 Central Services 4.94 64.64

Supporting Further and Higher Education

Strategic Aims• To develop solutions to help the UK education and

research communities use ICT innovatively to keep their activities world class.

• To provide support to institutions to enable them to use ICT innovatively, economically, efficiently and legally.

• To help the sector provide positive, personalised user experiences.

• To develop mutually advantageous relationships within the UK and abroad to lead ICT innovation.

• To advise and inform the strategies of government, funding councils and research councils and help implement them.

Supporting Further and Higher Education

Priorities 2004-06

• Maintain and develop a world class network and infrastructure for institutions

• Provide sustainable procurement and delivery services for online content

• Develop a common information and communications environment

• Create MLEs from VLEs & MIS• Provide coherent, economical advice and

guidance services to staff within institutions

Supporting Further and Higher Education

Priorities Cont

• Improve information and feedback mechanism

• With Becta and the Academy help embed ICT

• Develop e-Research infrastructure• Help institutions manage ICT investment• Provide technology observatory• Support widening participation• Improve effectivness of JISC• Partnership role

Supporting Further and Higher Education

Current Status of Information Management

• Applications

• Content

• Meta Data &

Delivery tools

• Finding /

Access tools

• Authentication•

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earn

ing

•D

igit

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ibra

ries

•E

-sci

ence

• Internet

Supporting Further and Higher Education

How Far Can a Common Environment Go?

• Applications

• Content

• Meta Data &

Delivery tools

• Finding /

Access tools•

E-l

earn

ing

•D

igit

al l

ibra

ries

•E

-sci

ence

• Internet

• Authentication etc

Supporting Further and Higher Education

JISC has historically supported research by:

• the continued provision of, and wide access to, a world leading network to support research

• funding an on-line information environment providing secure and convenient access to a comprehensive collection of scholarly material

• promoting innovation in the use of IT

• providing a focus for international collaboration in the exploitation of ICT

Supporting Further and Higher Education

JCSR activities

• JCSR is funding projects relating to authentication, authorisation and accounting

• JCSR with EPSRC is funding projects relating to semantic grids and autonomic computing

• JCSR with ESRC is funding projects to train social scientists in the use of new e-research approaches

Supporting Further and Higher Education

JCSR activities (Continued)

• JCSR with CCRLC is funding National Grid Service; four computing clusters to allow researchers to work in a ‘safe’ Grid environment

• JCSR with e-Science Core Programme and JCCS is funding a Digital Curation Centre to provide advice and support on the preservation and re-use of digital material

• JCSR with AHRB is funding to train arts and humanities researchers in the use of innovative ICT approaches

Supporting Further and Higher Education

JCSR activities (continued)

• JCSR with BBSRC and EPSRC is funding a UK Text Mining Centre to enable researchers to excavate richer seams of electronic material

• JCSR is funding three projects to demonstrate e-science in schools to capture the imagination of young students

Supporting Further and Higher Education

JCSR membership

• JCSR membership is drawn from the Research Councils and AHRB (one member nominated by each Council)

• Learned societies

• Observers from relevant organsations (eg British Library, UKOLN)

Supporting Further and Higher Education

UK Light• HEFCE is investing £6.5 million in a UK

initiative, known as ‘UKLight’, in the area of optical networking

• UKLight will enable the UK to participate in the next era of international network collaboration, based on a global integrated testbed.

• JCSR provides policy direction for UKLight, with operational support from UKERNA.

Supporting Further and Higher Education

Virtual Research Environment

• HEFCE has allocated funding to JISC of £3.2 million to develop a Virtual Research Environment (VRE)

• VRE will be a set of services to support research processes underpinned by a standards-based framework

• VRE Working Group is developing proposal for JCSR approval