Session Speakers and Abstracts

Lisa Colledge

Project Snowball – delivering common metrics, practices and tools to benchmark research performance in UK

Project Snowball’s overriding objective is to address the need for higher education institutions to work more collaboratively with each other, suppliers and funders.  Its overriding objective is to achieve a consistent understanding of metrics to enable more effective benchmarking, and improve the efficiency of data management.

Lisa Colledge is currently leading Project Snowball.  She has experience in product development in Elsevier’s SciVal group, as a data analyst, and as a publisher.  Before joining Elsevier, Lisa carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Edinburgh. She holds an MA Hons and a DPhil, both from the University of Oxford.

Rachel Curwen

York's journey to a connect Research Information System: Pure

In 2008, the University of York decided to invest in a centralised Research Information System.  The pathway from the specification of the system’s capabilities, through its implementation and launch will be described, along with a realistic view of the experience of using and managing the system on a day to day basis.

Rachel Curwen is a Research Strategy and Policy Officer at the University of York and is the Business Systems Manager for their Research Information System.  Having led the procurement and implementation process, she now has responsibility for the day to day running and development of the system, and training of academic and support staff. 

Gill Ferrell, Alex Hawker and Andrew Stewart, JISC

JISC and the Beanstalk

Once upon a time a programme manager from JISC traded his cow (called Old Management and Administrative Computing) for a handful of magic beans.  The beans were marked EA, Cloud, SOA, product modularisation and shared services.  Find out what happened when he planted them and witness the launch of a new infoKit that disentangles the reality from the fairytales.

Gill Ferrell is an independent consultant with experience of using IT to support all aspects of learning, teaching, research and administration in universities.  She is the author of many resources in the popular infoKit series and is currently supporting JISC in disseminating the outcomes of the Flexible Service Delivery Programme.

Alex Hawker is a programme manager at JISC, whose portfolio includes managing the Flexible Service Delivery (FSD) programme and establishing Enterprise Architecture (EA) in the sector as a professional approach to managing organisational change.

Andy Stewart is the Information Manager within the Business and Community Engagement (BCE) Coordination Team, a cross service team based jointly at JISC infoNet and JISC Netskills.  He is also the Community Facilitator for the JISC Flexible Service Delivery (FSD) Programme and has played an active role in finalising the programme outputs.

Nikki Rogers

The Student Mobile Experience − a strategic approach at the University of Bristol

At Bristol we have been developing mobile services since the Mobile Campus Assistant project (funded by the JISC in 2009).  This talk will describe our focus on understanding the holistic, on the move needs of students with mobile devices, rather than purely trying to mobilise information resources on a routine basis.

Nikki has been based at the University of Bristol for over 10 years.  Previously a Java Web Developer, Nikki went on to become Web Futures Manager, responsible for innovative projects in IT Services’ R&D group.  Nikki is now Enterprise Architect at Bristol and is steering the Mobile Strategy.

Paul Taylor

Brave New World reinvented

The government's Brave New HE World positions students as consumers of education.  Some universities challenge this and recognise their students as producers of original knowledge.  Reinventing curriculum in this way brings rewards but also challenges for those supporting the innovations, through learning space design, information services, assessment and feedback.

Paul Taylor has a BSc and PhD in Chemistry from the University of Durham and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Geneva.  He moved to Warwick as a Lecturer in 1991 and is currently a Reader in Organic Chemistry as well as Director of the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning.

Chris Skinner

Living with chaos: how technology is making a revolution in our lifetimes and lifestyles

The fact that our planet has changed from one where all relationships were physical just a century ago to wireless today is changing the whole way in which we think, act, behave and relate to each other.  Every person on the planet is connected to wireless infrastructure today, and with seven billion people able to communicate P2P, it is making the world a different place.  We can now engage in virtual commerce over thousands of miles of distance, and even virtual sex for those who are interested.  The result is that nothing can be controlled, regulated, managed or even structured in a coordinated fashion. We live in a world of chaos, and living with chaos is the mantra of today.  For businesses, this means focusing on the point of life (the place where the customer exists in realtime) rather than the point of sale or the point of interaction.  Making sense of all of this chaos is Chris Skinner, a visionary speaker on money, finance, economics and chaos.

David Sweeney

Current issues in Research Management and Support

Further details have been published on the criteria for the Research Excellence Framework and changes have been made to the way in which QR funding is allocated in England, concentrating on internationally excellent and world leading research.  The new T-funding regime in England may have implications for research funding and management.  This talk will draw together the latest developments on these, look at the implications for research management, discuss the implications for the UK (as opposed to the English) environment and tease out some of the implications for research support.

David Sweeney has been Director (Research, Innovation and Skills) since 2008.  In this role he is responsible for developing policy on Research (including the Research Assessment Exercise and Research Excellence Framework), Business and Community and Skills Policy.  He is also responsible for the London and East regional teams and for the Strategic Development Fund.  A statistician, David worked at two BBSRC research institutes, developing mathematical models of plant growth then moving into senior management in the IT area, becoming Director of Information Services at Royal Holloway, University of London and serving in a national role as Chair of UCISA.  He became Vice-Principal (Communications, Enterprise and Research) in 2004, responsible for research strategy, the 2008 RAE submission and for developing Royal Holloway's research led commercial and consultancy activities, knowledge transfer and development programme. 

David Sowerby

Change, information, systems − shaping the future

We know that the HE environment is changing.  The student:institution relationship will change with increased expectations, and the student experience seen as paramount.  We have information, systems and challenged budgets.  This session takes a sometimes slightly unconventional look at what we can do to be more than just an innocent bystander, and take an active part in helping to shape that future.

After 4+ years as Systems Development Manager for the University of Bedfordshire, David joined SolStonePlus as Product Manager to focus on the development of existing and new products specifically for the HE Sector.  Originally from an electronics background, David spent 10 years with a major IT outsourcer, and has also worked for a Marketing Services company, a software house, a Financial Systems reseller and a Facilities Management company.  His roles have been varied, covering software development, consultancy, project and programme management, generally in a customer facing capacity.  Clients have been from a wide variety of sectors, including retail, manufacturing, defence and SMEs.  His passion, however, is to be closely involved with the design and development of solutions which meet a real business need.  This is driven by the belief that technology has no intrinsic value, but when applied in the right way, can contribute great value to any business.

Craig Wentworth, Ged Powell, Kevin Ashley, Andy Powell and Les Ormonde, JISC

Delivering efficiencies and value for money by sharing services and floating on clouds

A series of brief talks looking at the benefits and opportunities offered by services developed from JISC’s HEFCE funded UMF Shared Services and the Cloud Programme.  A chaired discussion will then allow you to ask questions to determine how your institution can best take advantage of them.

Kevin Ashley is Director of the Digital Curation Centre.  His earlier experience includes medical research, national computer and data services, network development, digital archives.

Andy Powell is Research Programme Director at Eduserv where he spends most of his time helping to develop the JISC funded UMF Cloud Pilot, based on Eduserv's Community Cloud Infrastructure.

Les Ormonde, Systems and Services Procurement Support (SSPS), JISC Advance
SSPS aims to improve the effectiveness of non-commodity administration systems procurement in the sector and help reduce costs by moving core business systems to an off-site shared service model.

Andrew West

Student centred services

2012 sees significant changes in HE funding.  How is this likely to impact on student expectations and what does this mean for service providers?  This presentation will cover issues such as changing student profiles and expectations, the contribution of professional services within the overall student experience and the importance of user engagement within service management.  Andrew will draw on material from a recent AMOSSHE project supporting service managers to better assess the value and impact of student support services.

Andrew West is Director of Student Services at the University of Sheffield.  His remit has a wide scope covering the student journey − including student recruitment, admissions, registry, student administration, learning and teaching support and a broad range of student support services.  Andrew is the current Chair of AMOSSHE – The Student Services Organisation, and he was Vice-Chair of AUA in 2010-11.  Andrew also serves as a member of the HE Advisory Panel for the Office of the Independent Adjudicator.  Andrew has published a number of professional journal articles on HE management and leadership issues, including a chapter on strategy and service quality within UNESCO’s guide to global best practice in student services.