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Press Release
JISC unveils plans to invest extra £80m in UK education and research
13th October, 2005. Following awards amounting to an extra £80m of capital
funding over two years, JISC today announced plans to invest further in a
range of activities to support UK education and research from 2006 to 2008.
The funds, awarded by HEFCE, will significantly enhance the UK's digital
infrastructure and bring a wide range of benefits to the higher education
and research sectors.
Among the plans announced today were:
Repositories - support to provide institutions with policy advice and
technical guidance on setting up digital repositories; funding to support
institutions in developing a critical mass of content, and the provision of
national structures to support searching across federated repositories.
Network - extra funding to support the transition to the next-generation
SuperJANET5 network; further development of the UK's optical network for
research communities - UKLight - and its integration into SuperJANET5.
Digitisation - further investment in the digitisation of important scholarly
resources; in collaboration with partners, the development of national
digitisation and e-content strategies.
e-Learning - working with the HE Academy to support the implementation of
HEFCE's e-learning strategy and the DfES's e-strategy, including the
establishing of a national e-learning advisory centre for the HE community.
e-Research - development of a national e-infrastructure in support of the
research community and in support of the DTi's 'Science and Innovation
Investment Framework 2004 -2014'.
User Environments - build on the success of the Virtual Research Environment
(VRE) programme to support researchers in using VREs in all disciplines:
investigate the further extension of such environments to incorporate wider
functions and to support other users, including those engaged in e-learning
and e-administration.
Sir Ron Cooke, Chair of JISC, said: "These activities represent an important
milestone in the continued development of our national e-infrastructure and
the engagement with ICT of UK education and research. The wide range of
activities covered in these plans will bring widespread benefits to the
higher education and research communities, and JISC is delighted to have
been entrusted with what are significant funds for further investment."
Sir Howard Newby, Chief Executive of HEFCE, welcomed the announcement of
JISC's plans, saying: "The UK leads the world in the use of ICT to support
education and research, but continued investment is crucial to the future
competitiveness of both. These ambitious plans mean that the UK will be well
placed to exploit the full potential of ICT for many years to come."
For further information:
Philip Pothen on 020 7848 2935 / 07887 564 006 or [log in to unmask]
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