Discover and share good practice for smarter working universities

SHERPA REF Beta

A web service funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to clarify journal compliance with the Research Excellence Framework (REF), has been launched in beta form. Jisc's SHERPA REF Beta allows authors and institutions to quickly, accurately and easily check whether a journal they wish to publish in complies with open access policy for the REF.

Academic Career Frameworks: Key to Change?

Bournemouth University’s new career frameworks for academics are the subject of a longitudinal study funded by the Innovation and Transformation Fund. Here is a report from 2015 setting out the findings gathered to date.
Adrian Cox

Using equipment.data to make research equipment more discoverable

Adrian Cox, based at the University of Southampton, is project manager for equipment.data, an EPSRC funded project in response to the need to improve visibility and utilisation of UK higher education research equipment. We sat down for a ten minute chat with Adrian to find out exactly what equipment.data is all about and how it’s creating opportunities for efficiencies among institutions UK wide.

Leadership Foundation launches guide to efficiency for governors

Getting to Grips with Efficiency explores the concept of efficiency and the efficiency agenda within the higher education sector. As part of the Leadership Foundation's guide for governors series, it seeks to provide governors with the information to help guide their institutions to greater efficiency and to plan for new reporting requirements that may push them to go even further (log-in required to download publication).
Collaboration and shared services in UK higher education

Collaboration and shared services in UK higher education: report launch

Today sees the launch of a report on collaboration and shared services in higher education, which was commissioned by Efficiency Exchange. The report’s co-author Andrew Rothwell explains that with shared services "the best is yet to come”.

Procurement: a guide for governors

In order to achieve a successful procurement model it is important to win over not only those who work in procurement but all employees in an organisation. This guide examines the role of governors in in overseeing procurement, part of their responsibility in ensuring universities achieve value for money.

Implementation of Cost-Sharing Exemption in Universities

N8 universities have been working towards utilisation of the VAT Cost-Sharing Exemption (CSE) for sharing of equipment through the development of an approved Cost Sharing Group (CSG) model. By using an existing shared asset - N8 high performance computing - as a model facility for setting up a CSG, the N8 hoped to demonstrate its value and viability.

The P3 Project – People, Performance and Process, Bangor University

A project to bring the questions of people and performance together with lean methodologies has been developed by the Aber-Bangor Strategic Alliance with funding from the Innovation and Transformation Fund.

Cloud and Data Centre Framework

Cloud computing and the co-location of systems and services for data storage can help institutions drive down costs and drive up performance. Jisc provides advice and guidance on selecting solutions and suppliers of cloud and data centre services.

Brunswick agreements

Template agreements for use between institutions with reference to materials transfer, research collaboration and studentship. Produced by the Brunswick Group.