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The next and (for the time being) final deadline for the JISC Transformations Programme is noon on Monday 16 April. The JISC Transformations Programme is aimed at supporting institutions to effect organisational change through the application of existing JISC and other resources. And is aimed at staff where they are contributing to the delivery of business change underpinned by ICT in one of the following areas: - enhanced student experience; - improved efficiency and/or cost savings; - enhanced organisational capability for business and community engagement; - improved environmental performance. The programme will also be providing an extensive support package using action learning and providing development opportunities for staff involved. Given the amount of materials which have been created by the Digital Curation Centre and by projects in the JISC Managing Research Data Programme, the implementation of research data management support seems a ripe area for this sort of project. At the recent MRD/DCC workshop on RDM policies, the Leeds Roadmap project mentioned how Leeds had benefited from a Building Capacity project; the Building Capacity programme was the predecessor of the Transformations programme, sharing some of its characteristics. The sort of work area one can imagine would be to develop RDM support such that the institution fulfils core mission of providing a best-practice environment for research and meets funder expectations. Efficiency and cost-savings can be gained by reducing data loss; by making retrieval and reuse of data assets more efficient; by providing more cost-effective central services; or by obtaining a better institutional understanding of research outputs, including data assets. Any prospective proposers will be relieved to know that the proposal process is very lightweight. Please consult the Call document for the exact details. In essence proposals should comprise: 1) a short (600 word) statement of the problem that will be addressed, and how this relates to the objectives of the Call; 2) evidence of which JISC resources will be used, in what ways (be as specific as possible), and how the application of these resources will contribute to strategic benefits for the institution and for the wider sector; 3) a high level work plan, presented in a tabular or diagrammatic form; 4) a risk identification and mitigation plan; 5) letter of support form a senior institutional manager, providing a description of how they and other relevant staff will engage in the project. The level of funding is low, but permits a fraction of the project leads time to be assigned to lead a change project (in an area where the institution already wishes to act and direct effort), to evaluate and implement JISC resources, and to engage with a community peer support group, including action learning, organised by the programme. Further information and the Call document are available here: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/funding_calls/2011/12/grantcall1911.aspx Prospective proposers may be interested in the Transformations Programme blog, where there is more information: http://transformations.jiscinvolve.org/wp/ ***** Programme Website: http://bit.ly/jiscmrd2011-13 Community Discussion List: [log in to unmask] Blog: http://researchdata.jiscinvolve.org/ Programme Tag: #jiscmrd ***** Twitter, Skype: simonhodson99 Calendar: http://bit.ly/simonhodson99-calendar ***** Dr Simon HODSON Programme Manager – Managing Research Data JISC Executive Brettenham House (South Entrance) 5 Lancaster Place London WC2E 7EN E: [log in to unmask] M1: +44 (0) 7545 524 009 T: +44 (0) 203 006 6071