ELVI: Evaluation of a Large-scale VRE Implementation
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Project title
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E
valuation of a Large-scale VRE Implementation (ELVI)
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Start date
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01/02/05
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End date
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31/01/07
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Lead institution
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University of Nottingham
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Partner institutions
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none
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Project manager & contact details
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Ian Wilson, Head of Portal Services,
Information Services, University of Nottingham*
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Project web URL
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tbc
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Overall description
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Name of VRE solution/s
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Overall it could be considered a 'digital dashboard for research' but it comprises of a number of components and sits within a uPortal framework which provides a number of other tools
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Description of VRE solution/s
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The research-specific components include: A search tool to find potential collaborators, A filtered set of Funding Opportunities, Access to a Costing Tool, Access to Electronic Grant Submission sites, Financial information on existing projects, Reports and Statistics on Research Activity since 2001 and an RAE Validation tool
The more generic components that meet known research needs include: access to filestores, newsfeeds, threaded discussions, email and announcements
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Primary user group/s
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Research-active academics, research staff, research support staff, PG students, University management
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Functionality
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In the most basic terms it provides a one-stop-shop for research-related administrative requirements
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Benefits
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Very many but the most important is to save time by delivering a personalised set of tools and access to information
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Current level of maturity
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New versions of the components are being developed and released very month. The suite is 'live' and actively used by the community
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Target level of maturity at end of project
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Some of the tools have been specified are under-development and not yet deployed, such as the 'search tool to find potential collaborators'. The target is for all components to be available with sufficient time left to start to evaluate their impact
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Design & technical implementation
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Technical implementation
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Combinations of java, html and php within a Luminis (uPortal) framework
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Architecture
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Authentication using LDAP into a commercial version of uPortal (Luminis vIII.3.3) delivered on a Solaris 9 platform
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Standards compliance
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Compliant with all browsers
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Software availability
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n/a
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Documentation
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Produced as part of the project's final report
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