JISC GRANT FUNDING CALL 16/11: DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRAMME

JISC has recently announced a call (16/11) under its Digital Infrastructure programme with a deadline of *21^st November 2011*.

JISC have confirmed that there are no limits on how many applications that Edinburgh can put into this call. However, to avoid significantly overlapping bids to this call, if you plan to apply or know of someone who is, please contact Sarah Anderson, sarah.anderson@ed.ac.uk so that she can feed this information to senior colleagues if required.

Please also note that there are telephone and Skype sessions for prospective bidders on *26^th and 27^th October 2011*, and FAQs will be added to JISC's website after these sessions.

More information is below.

JISC GRANT FUNDING CALL 16/11: DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRAMME

The JISC invites institutions to submit funding proposals for projects to be funded as part of its Digital Infrastructure Portfolio. The deadline for receipt of proposals in response to this call is *12:00 noon on Monday 21 November 2011*.

Relevant members of the JISC Executive will be available for 30 minute sessions on either the *26 or 27 October 2011* (via telephone and/or Skype) in order for prospective bidders to ask questions and seek clarification on the circular. Those wishing to avail themselves of this opportunity should email the relevant programme manager (contact details are within the calls). These sessions are optional for bidders. Furthermore, members of the JISC Executive may be available at other times and will endeavour to respond in a timely fashion to ad hoc queries. Any general clarifications offered to prospective bidders will be shared publicly via an FAQ available from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/funding_calls/2011/10/grantcall1611.aspx.

Prospective bidders are advised to check this before contacting the JISC Executive.

JISC Grant Funding 16/11 http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/funding_calls/2011/10/grantcall1611.aspx>

This call has 6 strands:

* *Resource Discovery* -- up to 10 projects to implement the resource discovery taskforce vision by funding higher education libraries archives and museums to make open metadata about their collections available in a sustainable way. Funding up to £250,000 is available for this work. * *Enhancing the Sustainability of Digital Collections* -- up to10 projects to investigate and measure how effectively action can be taken to increase the prospects of sustainability for specified digital resources. Funding of up to £500,000 is available for this work. * *Research Information Management* -- 3 projects to explore the feasibility and pilot delivery of a national shared service for the reporting of research information from Research Organisations to funders and other sector agencies, to increase the availability of validated evidence of research impact for research organisations, funders and policy bodies, and to formally evaluate JISC-funded activities in the Research Information Management programme and to gather robust evidence of any benefits accruing to the sector from these activities. Funding of up to £450,000 is available for this work. * *Research Tools* -- 5 to 10 projects on exploiting technologies and infrastructure in the research process as well as innovating and extending the boundaries to determine the future demands of research on infrastructures. Funding of up to £350,000 is available for this work. * *Applications of the Linking You Toolkit* -- Up to 10 projects investigating the implementation and improvement of the 'Linking You Toolkit' for the purpose of demonstrating the benefits that management of institutional URLS can bring to students, researchers, lecturers and other University staff. Funding of up to £140,000 is available for this work. * *Access and Identity Management* -- 5 to 10 projects investigating the embedding of Access and Identity Management outputs and technological solutions within institutions. Funding of up to £200,000 is available for this work.

*Eligibility*

Proposals may be submitted by HE institutions funded via HEFCE, SFC, HEFCW and DEL Northern Ireland, and by FE institutions funded via BIS, SFC, DFES Wales and DEL Northern Ireland.

With regard to bids from Scottish institutions, SFC has applied a significant budget cut to JISC in 2011-12 AY. Following consultation with Scottish institutions, SFC has requested that the impact of this budget cut falls on the number of innovation projects JISC is able to fund at Scottish institutions, rather than to cut or increase charges for national services, such as JANET, JISC Collections and JISC Advance. Whilst Scottish institutions therefore remain eligible to bid for project funding in response to this call, depending on the quality of the submissions, JISC may need to limit the number of projects awarded to Scottish institutions.

Proposals may be from single institutions or consortia unless indicated otherwise in the relevant call. Partnership arrangements may be developed outside the sector (for example with research council sites, publishers, commercial suppliers), but the lead partner must meet the criteria outlined above. Funds can only be allocated through the lead partner.

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/