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This publication details organisations in JISC’s portfolio of services and other facilities, funded entirely or in part by JISC, that support UK higher and further education.

JISC funds a portfolio of services for access to online resources, for advice and support, and for underpinning infrastructure. These are a core facility for the use of digital technologies in UK research, learning and teaching, supporting both individual users and the business of institutions in the post-compulsory education sector.

JISC works through a small number of key organisations to deliver infrastructure and resources. Its major delivery partners are JANET (UK), JISC Collections, JISC Advance, the British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC), the Regional Support Centres and the two JISC national data centres, EDINA and Mimas at the universities of Edinburgh and Manchester.

JANET(UK)

JANET(UK) manages the operation and development of JANET, the UK’s education and research network.

The JANET network provides unparalleled, high-speed, highly reliable network connectivity, along with access to an extensive portfolio of computing services; it is an essential component in the delivery of cloud computing, virtualisation and data centre services –opportunities that offer the promise of reduced costs and improved environmental performance.

JANET(UK) provides a wide-ranging portfolio of networking services, which include:

• Videoconferencing 
• UK Access Management Federation
• JANET Certificate Service (verifying server ownership for online visitors)
• JANETtxt (a low-cost SMS service for education and research)
• A range of advisory services including voice, video, wireless and multi-site connectivity
  

JANET(UK)

National Grid Service (NGS)

The goal of the NGS is to deliver a reliable, high quality national e-infrastructure in support of academic research across UK higher education.

The NGS provides a set of central resources to facilitate the interconnection between research computing resources within member universities. Research computing resources include high performance computing and high-throughput computing systems, data resources such as databases and metadata storage systems, and other systems such as network-enabled experimental facilities and visualisation.

The NGS ensures that the UK is integrated with partner infrastructures in Europe, the USA and the world so that UK researchers can effectively and efficiently exploit facilities and collaborations across the world.

UK Access Management Federation for Education and Research

The UK Access Management Federation for Education and Research (the UK federation) provides a single solution for accessing online resources and services for education and research, negating the need to use numerous passwords.

This enables service providers to provide access to information for individuals based on identity information held by a user’s university, college or school.

A wide variety of service providers use the UK federation to provide access to students and staff within the UK including JISC services, publishers, Virtual Learning Environments, wiki and blog platforms and software companies such as Microsoft.

The UK federation uses the Security Assertion Markup Language standard which defines a common framework for access management that is being adopted by education and commercial sectors across the world.

The UK federation is operated by JANET and EDINA.

UK Access Management Federation for Education and Research

EDINA

EDINA is a JISC national academic data centre based at the University of Edinburgh. Its mission is to enhance the productivity of learning, teaching and research across universities and colleges in the UK. This is achieved by delivering first-rate online services and working with support staff at those institutions and with partners in the academic community and beyond.

EDINA

	Digimap Collections offers contemporary, historic, geological and marine services that deliver maps and map data of Great Britain.
	Education Image Gallery is an exciting collection of 50,000 images covering key events and multiple subject areas.
	Film & Sound Online provides collections of film, video and sound material available for download with contents ranging from recordings of archaeological excavations to medical documentaries and classical music files.
	Go-Geo! is the place to discover geospatial information and services for those in education and research.
	Jorum (run jointly by Mimas and EDINA) provides two collections, JorumOpen and JorumUK, through which universities and colleges can find, share and manage free learning and teaching resources.
	Land Life Leisure is a weekly index of articles from the popular press and journals covering agriculture, countryside management, environmental change, equine studies, and leisure and tourism.
	NewsFilm Online supplies selected news stories and programme scripts from the ITN/Reuters archives.
	SUNCAT (The Serials Union Catalogue) is a free tool to help researchers and librarians locate serials (ie journals, periodicals, newspapers, newsletters, magazines and annual reports) held in the UK.
	UKBORDERS provides digitised boundary datasets of the UK, available in many Geographic Information System (GIS) formats.

Mimas

Mimas is a national data centre based at the University of Manchester which hosts a significant number of the UK’s research information assets – and builds applications to help people make the most of this rich resource.

Mimas has a longstanding relationship with JISC, developing services that support learning, teaching and research.

Mimas

	The Archives Hub helps researchers investigate the past, employing today’s most sophisticated technology to transform the way people use archives and manuscript collections.
	Copac gives free online access to the catalogues of more than 50 UK libraries, and unique collections such as those at Tate Britain and the Natural History Museum.
	Hairdressing Training is an online and mobile resource for hairdressing students and teachers with step-by-step guides and handy tips and techniques.
	Intute helps researchers, teachers and students find credible scholarly information on the web, via research tutorials (including the Virtual Training Suite) and pathways to trusted resources.
	Jorum (run jointly by Mimas and EDINA) provides two collections, JorumOpen and JorumUK, through which universities and colleges can find, share and manage free learning and teaching resources.
	Landmap connects UK university researchers to the highest quality spatial data, including incredibly rich satellite images of the Earth’s surface.
	Zetoc provides access to the British Library’s Electronic Table of Contents of around 20,000 current journals and 16,000 conference proceedings.

UK Data Archive

The UK Data Archive is a centre of expertise in data acquisition, preservation, dissemination and promotion and is curator of the largest collection of digital data in the social sciences and humanities in the UK. Founded in 1967, it now houses several thousand collections, spanning quantitative, qualitative and historical data of interest to researchers, teachers and learners.

The UK Data Archive runs a number of high profile data services and is proud to be a designated Place of Deposit by The National Archives, allowing it to acquire and preserve public records. The UK Data Archive is based at the University of Essex in Colchester.

UK Data Archive

Digital Curation Centre (DCC)

The DCC is the UK’s leading centre of expertise in digital data curation with a focus on building capacity, capability and skills for data curation across the UK’s higher education research community. It provides expertly mediated access to resources, and an advocacy and community development programme designed to produce a nationally coherent movement for change – all underpinned by a training programme aimed at nurturing the transfer of knowledge and best practice between data producers, users and custodians.

Digital Curation Centre (DCC)

National Centre for Text Mining (NaCTeM)

NaCTeM offers text mining services to UK researchers to enable semantic searching of text – that is, searches based on the meanings of words, phrases or terms in different contexts. This improves access to information and increases the efficiency of new research methodologies and techniques based on advanced digital technologies (ie e-science and e-research).

To achieve this NaCTeM provides software tools and services, customised solutions, support and advice. Services have been developed for the biological sciences, social sciences and medicine.

National Centre for Text Mining (NaCTeM)

JISC Collections

JISC Collections was established by the UK higher and further education funding councils in 2006 to negotiate, procure and license digital content at a national level on behalf of the academic and research community.

Originally operating within JISC, JISC Collections is now a limited company that mutually trades with its members – all universities, colleges and research councils – that receive direct funding from the UK higher and further education funding councils. JISC Collections also licenses digital content for an expanding range of affiliate members – organisations in the UK and overseas which qualify for membership through their engagement in lifelong learning, for example schools and museums.

In the last academic year JISC Collections delivered its members over £43 million in efficiency savings.

JISC Collections

British Universities Film & Video Council (BUFVC)

BUFVC promotes the production, study and use of moving image, sound and related media in universities and colleges.

It provides courses, maintains databases that direct people to available content, and gives advice on copyright issues relating to moving image and sound materials.

BUFVC’s television and radio library covers more than ten years of broadcasts from the main channels. Universities and colleges may also access a growing archive of tens of thousands of programmes online via the new BoB (Box of Broadcasts) National service.

As an experienced research organisation BUFVC develops the long-term impact and sustainability of research projects through the creation of digital resources that reach a wide range of audiences.

British Universities Film & Video Council (BUFVC)

JISC CETIS (Centre for Educational Technology and Interoperability Standards)

JISC CETIS is a JISC Innovation Support Centre advising UK further and higher education on the strategic, technical and pedagogic implications of educational technology and standards. JISC CETIS believes that open standards can reduce the cost and risk of implementation by increasing the choice of systems available to universities and colleges.

The centre provides strategic advice to JISC, supports its innovation programmes, and represents JISC on international standardisation initiatives. For the wider educational community JISC CETIS organises meetings, workshops and conferences and, via its website, offers daily comment and analysis on current developments in educational technology.

JISC CETIS (Centre for Educational Technology and Interoperability Standards)

UKOLN

UKOLN is a centre of expertise in digital information management, providing advice and services to education, library, information and cultural heritage communities by:

• Influencing policy and informing practice
• Promoting community-building and consensus-making by actively raising awareness
• Advancing knowledge through research and development
• Building innovative systems and services based on web  technologies
• Acting as an agent for knowledge transfer

UKOLN aims to inform practice and influence policy in the areas of: digital libraries, information systems, bibliographic management and web technologies. It provides network information services, including Ariadne magazine, and runs workshops and conferences.

UKOLN

OSS Watch (Open Source Software Innovation Support Centre)

Many collaborative techniques used in open source software development can be employed in wider education and research contexts. OSS Watch helps bridge the gap between open source software produced and employed by academics and that of the commercial open source sector.

OSS Watch works with university technology transfer units to maximise opportunity for open innovation in academic software, and provides mentoring and guidance to academic projects that select open development as their route to sustainability.

OSS Watch helps to develop open source skills in education and research by producing educational materials and supporting departments that teach courses in open development methodologies.

OSS Watch (Open Source Software Innovation Support Centre)

JISC Technology and Standards Watch (TechWatch)

TechWatch provides horizon scanning services for further and higher education. It commissions and publishes reports on the developments in digital technology likely to be important to institutional decision making within the next five to ten years. Each report provides analysis of the issues as well as recommendations for a strategic response.

TechWatch has recently launched a series of Early Adopter studies that aim to put new technology developments into a practical context. It does this by profiling how they are being used within both JISC pilot projects and higher and further education institutions.

JISC Technology and Standards Watch (TechWatch)

JISC Monitoring Unit

The JISC Monitoring Unit is a primary source of information for demonstrating the efficiency, impact and value of the infrastructure and services provided by JISC to UK education. The Unit regularly collects and analyses data from each of the services JISC funds and publishes reports to enable JISC to manage its relationships with the service providers and for portfolio management.

JISC Advance

JISC Advance is a not-for-profit organisation that brings together the collective expertise of established JISC services: JISC Digital Media, JISC infoNet, JISC Legal, JISCMail, JISC Netskills, JISC Procureweb, JISC RSCs UK and JISC TechDis.

Focused clearly on the needs of users, JISC Advance is committed to providing agile, holistic services, comprehensive knowledge and support. The resources offered by JISC Advance address key challenges within higher education, further education and the skills sector:

• Efficiency and effectiveness
• Enhancing learning and teaching
• External engagement
• Research
• Sustainability

JISC Digital Media

JISC Digital Media aims to ensure that the digital media resources being created, used and managed within the further and higher education community meet the learning, teaching and research needs of individuals, colleges and universities in the UK.

The JISC Digital Media team provide advice, guidance and training in:

• Creating digital media resources, specifically still images, moving images and sound resources
• Delivering digital media resources to users
• Using digital media resources to support learning, teaching and research
• Managing small and large-scale digitisation projects

JISC infoNet

JISC infoNet promotes the effective strategic planning, implementation and management of digital technology in higher and further education. The service provides resources to help improve the support for, and quality of, learning, teaching and research.

Providing good-practice guidance to help universities and colleges improve efficiency and effectiveness, and examples of innovation to inspire, JISC infoNet offers a popular range of online resources called infoKits. These are freely available on the JISC infoNet website along with details of accompanying publications and workshops. Current infoKits cover topics such as strategy, project management, change management, e-portfolios and learning environments.

JISC infoNet

JISC Legal

JISC Legal works to ensure that legal issues do not become a barrier to the adoption and use of digital technologies in learning, teaching, research, administration and external engagement activities. By regularly attending events JISC Legal is able to stay in touch with real legal concerns and focus on the legal guidance that universities and colleges need.

Offering practical, relevant advice to universities and colleges, JISC Legal’s publications and audio visual resources help staff to understand legal issues and make informed decisions, quickly, which can save time and money. A quick-turnaround helpdesk for specific enquires is available to help universities and colleges to be confident in compliance.

JISCMail

JISCMail facilitates knowledge sharing within UK education and research communities, using email and the web to enable the development of specialist online groups. JISCMail offers a safe and trusted environment to promote best practice and engagement within these groups, each having a strong emphasis on leading technological improvements, economical gain and community impact.

These specialist online communities offer information to their audiences and, via healthy debate and sharing, stimulate innovation in their respective subject areas. These areas include sustainability, research excellence, student recruitment and services.

JISC Netskills

JISC Netskills provides high quality staff development services, enabling universities and colleges to make effective use of digital technologies for learning and teaching, research, administration, marketing and other activities.

Continual development of staff skills is vital to universities and colleges seeking to fully embrace the challenges and opportunities arising from the adoption of new and innovative technology.

JISC Netskills offers expertise in e-learning, web technologies, training design and information skills, and provides a comprehensive range of products and services including exceptional quality face-to-face and online training.

JISC Procureweb

JISC Procureweb provides procurement support for universities, colleges and research councils, offering a wide range of procurement-related tools, information and systems.

JISC Procureweb tools and applications can help universities, colleges and research councils to identify and record cost savings when purchasing goods and services. Data from projects can be captured, analysed and presented in graphs and tables allowing efficiency data to be measured and reported in a methodical way. This information can then be incorporated into annual reports for funding councils and distributed to central government to demonstrate value for money.

JISC Procureweb

JISC Regional Support Centres (RSCs)

A network of 13 JISC RSCs across the UK assists universities, colleges and skills providers with information, advice and guidance in the use of digital technologies to achieve their organisational goals.

While operating as a national service, they are responsive to local needs through a strong sense of local ownership. JISC RSCs provide strategic advice and support through visits, events and peer-to-peer support networks. Working in tandem with other JISC Advance services and partners, RSCs stimulate and support innovation in learning by tailoring advice and guidance to suit a learning provider’s individual needs.

JISC Regional Support Centres (RSCs)

JISC TechDis

JISC TechDis is the leading UK education advisory service on accessibility and inclusion.

It provides expert advice and guidance on disability and technology, aimed at managers, front-line practitioners and specialist staff, and encourages the integration of accessibility strategies into the heart of organisational policies and procedures.

JISC TechDis supports research programmes and stimulates innovation in the development of sustainable resources, materials and tools, with the aim of ensuring an accessible and inclusive experience for students and staff. The service promotes a culture of inclusive practice within education institutions together with practices and techniques that enhance business and community engagement.

JISC TechDis