1. business and industrial
2. business operations
3. management
4. project management

A. Proposal Cover Sheet
JISC Grant Funding 12/10
Cover Sheet for Proposals
(All sections must be completed)
Business Intelligence
Name of Lead Institution:
University of Huddersfield
Name of Proposed Project:
Visualisation of Research Strength (VoRS)
Name(s) of Project Partners(s) None
(except commercial sector – see
below)
This project involves one or
Name(s) of any commercial partner company (ies)
more commercial sector partners
NO
Full Contact Details for Primary Contact:
Name: Professor Andrew Ball
Position: Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research and Enterprise
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 01484 472531
Address: University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, HD1
3DH
Length of
Project:
Project Start
Date:
18 months
Project End
Date:
1 February 2011
31 July 2012
Total Funding Requested from JISC: £49,404
Funding requested from JISC broken down across Financial Years (Aug-July)
Aug10 – July11
Aug11 – July12
£16,454
£32,950
Total Institutional Contributions:
£29,015
Outline Project Description
Many HEIs now maintain repositories containing their researchers‟ publications. They have
the potential to provide much information about the research strength of an HEI, as
publications are the main output of research. The project aims to merge internal information
extracted from an institution‟s publications repository with external information (academic
subject definitions, quality of outlets and publications), for input to a visualisation tool. The
tool will assist research managers in making decisions which need to be based on an
understanding of research strengths across subject areas, such as where to aim internal
investment. In the event that the tool becomes a part of a BI resource, It could lead to
institution vs institution comparisons and visual benchmarking for research.
I have looked at the example FOI form at
Appendix A and included an FOI form in this
bid
I have read the Funding Call and associated
Terms and Conditions of Grant at Appendix B
1
YES
YES
B.
B.1.
B.2.
B.3.
B.4.
B.5.
B.6.
B.7.
Appropriateness and Fit to Programme Objectives and Overall Value to JISC
Community
This project addresses the call for projects in the field of Business Intelligence (BI) for
funding under the JISC Innovation Programme. It will address the subject categories of
“performance measurement and management”, “staff data”, “research data”,
“benchmarking”, and “strategic planning”.
This project addresses the BI “challenges for institutions”: it is sponsored by University
senior management, and it is aimed at using existing standards and tools to create
innovative, sector-wide assistance for managers to assess accurately and succinctly
the research capability of an organisation and its faculties, and match-up an HEI‟s
research strategy with its research outputs.
Our proposal is to prototype a BI demonstrator (a visualisation tool) for use by HEI
senior research managers, which enables them to view the growth, coverage, depth,
quality and penetration of their HEI's research outputs within the context of the whole
range of academic subject areas. It will assist in evaluating the research performance
of sectors of their HEI, and in making decisions which need to be based on an
understanding of research strengths and weakness across subject areas, such as
where to aim internal investment, or which areas to submit to the REF. Additionally, it
will assist managers in determining which research areas are in growth or decline, and
in judging the effect of past investment by investigating the correlation between
funding and current growth.
An institution‟s publications database held within a repository has the potential to
provide much information about that institution, as publications are the major output of
research and the main determiner of research assessment results. Institutional
publications repositories are a relatively recent phenomenon, but are rapidly growing
within the sector.
The project aims to merge internal information extracted from an institution‟s
publications repository and other core business systems, with external information
(outlet rankings, subject definitions, academic area ontologies, citation information), for
the sake of succinctly communicating a visual understanding of the state of research in
an HEI to research managers.
The proposed project will build on other JISC-funded work, for example:
B.6.1. the JISC RIM project (call 11/09) at the University of Huddersfield (UoH) which
has led to the building of a RIM software tier which integrates data from our
core business processes with research information. Publications repository
data is extracted through this RIM layer into a standard CERIF data definition in
a form that has been validated through identity management data from our HR
system. The RIM layer can be used as a service which exports this validated,
enhanced publications data.
B.6.2. the JISC CRISPool project
(http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/projects/CRISpool.aspx) which has led to the
development of an XML form of CERIF. The output of this project will be used
to inform the interface definition of the proposed project‟s visualisation tool, in
order that its interfaces conform to the developing research data standard.
Our current information management capability with respect to publications data can
be mapped onto the JISC BI maturity model. At UoH, as in many other institutions, the
use of the publication repository is mandatory. Thus, we have progressed through the
steps in level 2 of the maturity model, with the help of our publications repository
initiative, and the JISC RIM project (call 11/09) which produced a RIM layer for
producing consistent and enhanced publications data. This proposal will enable us to
move through levels 3 to 6 of the maturity model with respect to BI for aspects of
research.
2
B.8. In its raw state, or even when precipitated into sets of numeric performance indicators,
the publications repository does not easily convey business information to a manager
or planner. “Counts” of publications are not very informative, as they convey little
information about quality or spread. We aim to utilise state of the art visualisation tools
and techniques used in research and teaching in the Games and Entertainment area
of our informatics department, in order to display and animate visualisations
representing the research landscape.
B.9. We are planning to engage, with the help of our publications repository manager Mr
Graham Stone, six other HEIs during the project in order to evaluate the visualisation
tool, and to make progress towards publication repository comparisons and “visual”
subject benchmarks.
B.10. At the end of the project we believe that the visualisation tool will be suitable to use as
part of a JISC showcase, and could be used as a BI demonstrator downloadable from
the JISC BI resource.
C.
Quality of Proposal and Robustness of Workplan
C.1. The project aims to deliver
C.1.1. a demonstrator of BI (the visualisation tool) which embodies elements of the
JISC BI maturity model up to level 6 and which satisfies the information and
decision support needs of senior research managers, in that it can convey an
accurate visual understanding of the coverage and depth of a HEI‟s research
when displayed on a background of the full breadth and scope of all academic
research areas. This demonstrator will include:
a) input from the current set of references within a publications repository,
and external data, as specified below.
b) a set of functions that include (a) the ability to drill down onto subject
areas (b) the ability to view the research map historically, so that growing
or dwindling research areas can be identified (c) the ability to select
which combination of quality factors are used to highlight publications.
c) a set characteristics that include (a) the utilisation of state of the art
visualisation techniques (b) an innovative blend of HEI internal
publication reference data with external subject ontology and outlet
quality data.
d) a set of interface data definitions in XML, so that the demonstrator tool
may be accessed in a service oriented manner, to maximise its potential
for re-use.
C.1.2. a case study review of the development and evaluation of the demonstrator
taking into account
a) the published BI maturity levels, and a reflection on their definition
b) the implementation issues (paragraph 28 of the call)
c) the improvement in understanding and use of BI within our institution
d) the impact of the work on other institutions in the sector.
C.1.3. Additional outputs as detailed in paragraph 35 of programme call: a blog, an
audio description, and a completion report.
C.2. The project will commence with a detailed requirements analysis, utilising the
information already harvested on the JISC infoNet from senior managers. It will then
progress in two parallel strands (identified as Team A and Team B in the project
timetable, respectively); the first will focus on designing and prototyping adequate data
interfaces, producing or acquiring data to these interface standards, and creating the
processes to produce the data; the second will configure a visualisation tool which will
display the data to the needs of research managers. The next steps will be to evaluate
the tool, initially using the UoH repository, and subsequently piloting the tool with other
repositories.
3
C.3. A detailed set of requirements for the visualisation functionality of the BI tool will be
refined and made explicit during the initial part of the project, in conjunction with senior
research managers in the UoH.
C.4. Data input to the tool will include the following:
C.4.1. A set of research publication references taken from a publications repository.
This internal data will be the main input to the tool.
C.4.2. Academic subject ontology. This will used as a landscape map on which the
repository data will be overlaid, to indicate the extent of subject coverage.
C.4.3. Publication quality information: all academic subjects have classifications of
outlets, based on the impact and esteem of the outlet. This amounts to a
function between outlet (which is identified uniquely in publication reference
data) to a quality class. This data is required to make up the visual
representation of the depth and penetration of subject coverage.
C.4.4. Citation data. This amounts to a function between reference and a quality
class, based on a normalised reference citation which can take into account
subject area norms and self-citations.
C.4.5. Funding source data (where available). Most publications can be linked to a
funded project or grant from which they are output, but this needs to occur
manually at reference input stage.
C.5. Data Acquisition:
C.5.1. the main set of data - publication references – is readily available within any
HEI with a repository. Currently the UoH‟s ePrints system has over 8,000
publications stretching back over 10 years.
C.5.2. There are several options to be considered for the basis of the subject
landscape: we could use library classification, JACS code, RAE Unit of
Assessment subcategories, general subject ontologies, or an ontology-based
solution based on a blend of folksonomy and taxonomy as used in a similar,
recent South African DSS [ref: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1633597]
C.5.3. We will use publically available quality data on outlets, and identifiers such as
ISSN to ensure a consistent mapping from outlet to quality grade.
C.6. An interface data definition will be defined which provides a bridge between the
visualisation tool and the sets of input data above. For both the publications data and
subject information, we will determine a representation that will satisfy the needs of the
proposed tool and the flexibility of representation in order to anticipate future upgrades.
We have already investigated the representation of publication reference data within
the JISC RIM (call 11/09) project. This led to the creation of ePronto, an ontology
representation in OWL that can be used to enhance the representation of the
reference data (ref: JISC RIM UoH completion report, Appendix A). One option would
be to use an OWL – XML representation for the interface data definition.
C.7. It is assumed that basic requirements on the visualisation hardware will be: an ability
to represent a large quantity of data in multiple dimensions, where the data can
contain related, un-related, or hidden relations; a real time display of the data in a
batch, comprehensible fashion, able to indicate patterns and trends; and interactivity
for highlighting, changing weights, or other editing and analytical requirements.
C.8. We are aware of cost effective PC-based platforms and existing technologies, in
particular from the games and entertainment industry where visualisation is most
advanced. With modern PC interfaces, there is a potential for using different types of
textures for storing data. Each Texel (textual-pixel) could represent an individual entry,
that could be a person, an output, or a pre-defined "factor", which can be colour coded
into the RGB-channel (Red, Green, Blue) with the Alpha channel for information such
as "weights". The resolution of a 2 Dimensional (2D) texture will decide the scale of the
background map, e.g., a 800 x 600 texture will be able to store 480,000 individual
entries, and up to 72 texture units can be acquired from off-the-shelf graphics devices,
making the data size potentially over 30 million (480k X 72) entries.
4
C.9. The stored data can be used to generate the conventional coloured blocks, charts,
dotted graphs, and other 3D shapes, but also the textures to influence an underpinning
screen-aligned geometry, i.e. a terrain representing the research landscape. There are
many other texture-related techniques, such as shadow mapping, parallax occlusion
mapping, and high dynamic range lighting, to enable the intuitive visualization of the
data, where correlations and conflicts can be revealed.
C.10. Most of the off-the-shelf PC and laptops have had the aforementioned functions
embedded in their graphics pipeline.
C.11. Timetable
Prior to
project start


Feb - April
2011









May - Jul 2011 



Aug –
Oct 2011



Recruit staff to conduct data acquisition and modelling, and visualisation
tool configuration (1 external consultant and a small team of internal
researchers)
Launch and promote the project through meetings of the UoH‟s
Research Committees
Establish Steering Group and Project Group membership
First meeting of project group to agree full project plan and work
packages
Complete detailed project plan, including work packages for submission
to JISC
Set up internal SharePoint site to coordinate project and disseminate
materials
Set up and go live with the project Blog
Submit project plan (including evaluation plan, QA plan, dissemination
plan and exit/sustainability plan) to JISC
Begin developing external project website for dissemination of materials
to the community
Team A to review internal and external data sources, and identify
methods and processes to acquire external data. In particular, initiate
acquisition of an outlet to quality mapping. Review data standards such
as CERIF-XML and the use of ontology languages such as OWL.
Team B to consolidate requirements of visualisation tool from University
managers and planners, and engage all stakeholders in determining
options for visualisation
Quarterly meeting of project group to review and evaluate progress, and
monitor engagement with JISC BI and the HEI sector.
Team A to source and assemble processes to extract external data,
finalise a set of inputs for an initial version of the tool, and create an
extensible, prototype interface specification for the tool.
Team B to examine visualisation features (texture, landscape, colour,
depth, 3-D etc), and specify data to feature mappings, and details of
viewing functions, in association with stakeholders.
Go live with an external facing website for dissemination of project
information to the wider community
Quarterly meeting of project group to review and evaluate progress, and
monitor engagement with JISC BI and the HEI sector
Team A to create a process to extract internal data from the UoH RIM
system, and integrate it with external attributes (e.g. integrating outlet
quality data with citation and funding source data), and to assemble the
integrated data sources to the prototype interface specification
Team B to use token data within the interface specification, and
prototype visualisation options with stakeholder involvement. Basic
visualisation of the background scheme from academic subject data,
5
Nov - Jan 2012 

Feb - April
2012





May-July 2012 



and the alignment of the core repository data onto this background, will
be finalised
Quarterly meeting of project group to review and evaluate progress, and
monitor engagement with JISC BI and the HEI sector.
Teams to finalise the data interfaces, add advanced functions to the
visualisation, and prototype the fully functional internal demonstrator
system for alpha testing. Convene a stakeholder group meeting and
gather feedback for preparation of the final demonstrator.
Initiate a first version of the demonstrator tool
Quarterly meeting of project group to review and evaluate progress, and
monitor engagement with JISC BI and the HEI sector.
Both teams to integrate the feedback and alpha-testing results into the
production of a first version of the demonstrator tool for beta testing.
Interface the demonstrator tool with collaborating HEI repositories, and
demonstrate the results and the capabilities of the tool. Produce
comparisons of repositories, and investigate the identification of subject
benchmarks by depth and coverage visualisation.
Place the demonstrator software with its interface specification onto the
project website.
Create an audio description of project and demonstrator
Invite internal stakeholders and the wider community to feedback and
comment on the demonstrator.
Create and submit completed case study to JISC.
Create and submit completion report to JISC.
C.12. Project management arrangements
C.12.1. Professor Andrew Ball, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research and Enterprise will
champion this project and direct change management that may occur through
the outcomes of this project and has dedicated 18 days to the project.
C.12.2. A steering group will be established and will meet every 3 months, but in the
first instance once each month, until the project is well underway.
C.12.3. A project group will be established, headed by Professor T Lee McCluskey.
The project group will meet once each month, for at least 2 hours, throughout
the period of the project to review and evaluate progress against the project
plan.
C.12.4. Kirsty Taylor will manage the project; 36 days of her time have been
allocated.
C.12.5. It is the University‟s standard practice to use the methodology outlined in the
JISC Project Management InfoKit for all major IT and IS projects and this
project will follow these methods.
C.13. Risks
RISK FACTOR
MITIGATION
Difficulties in obtaining internal
The steering and project group have a commitment
information
agreed at a strategic level through the Pro ViceChancellor to access appropriate data sources. Much
of the internal data has already been accessed in the
previous JISC RIM project (call 10/09) at UoH.
Key members of the project group As this is a University wide initiative there are
leave within the project timeframe. numerous staff both academic and administration
involved who will be able to take such a project
forward.
Difficulties in obtaining and
We have researched sources for external data and
converting external data
compiled information on similar quality ranking
6
Difficulties in adapting the tool to
other HEIs repositories
exercises. The range of possible sources available will
mitigate the risk of difficulties in converting data, in
that we will have a range of options.
We intend to design the interface data definition in a
flexible way eg where data fields are missing (such as
funding source data), this will only reduce the
functionality of the tool rather than rendering it
unusable.
C.14. IPR position
C.14.1. All outputs from the project will made available, free at the point of use and
under Open Access or Open source principles where possible, to the UK HE,
FE and Research communities in perpetuity in accordance with JISC‟s Open
Access Policy and/or JISC‟s Open Source Software Policy wherever possible.
C.15. Sustainability Issues
C.15.1. The value of the demonstrator's decision support mechanisms, in the
backdrop of a naturally growing repository, will ensure that it is maintained
within our institution. The flexible form of the tool‟s interface data definition will
assist it to remain future-proof.
C.15.2. If the demonstrator is popular in other institutions, this impact will further
support tool development and exploitation of the core tool's innovations.
D.
Engagement with the Community
D.1. The process of developing, constructing and evaluating the project‟s demonstrator will
lead to a greater awareness of the capability of such decision support technology
within our University, and the requirements of senior managers. Likewise, its roll out to
other institutions will raise awareness of BI within the sector.
D.2. The project will use IT mechanisms such as the Blog and Website to promote the
ongoing work and effect early dissemination of results.
D.3. The focused nature of the project, and the chronological length of the project, will
enable sustained periods of assessment of the tool both with internal stakeholders and
the external HEIs that agree to take part in the evaluation.
D.4. The past development of our research repository and the planned project map onto to
JISC's BI maturity model, hence at each stage of development we will be able to
compare our experience and engage in the maturity model's validation.
D.5. The open interface standard developed to input data to the demonstrator will draw on
the emerging CERIF standard for research data, hence the project will engage the
JISC RIM community.
D.6. Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder
Vice-Chancellor‟s
Office
Pro Vice-Chancellor for
Research & Enterprise
Research & Enterprise
Deans and School's
Research Directors
Interest / stake
Using business intelligence data for making
strategic decisions about research
Project Champion
Importance
High
The service is responsible for monitoring
research and enterprise activity across the
University and generating informative reports
and promoting RIM best practice within the
University.
Using BI to help develop research strategy and
monitor and meet research targets
High
7
High
High
Library / University
Repository Manager
Collaborating
Universities
JISC and other
institutions engaged in
the BI programme
HEFCE and Funding
Bodies
Performing a “collection mapping” in terms of
evaluating the repository contents as a library
collection.
Comparisons with other HEIs, and development
of visual benchmarking
Evaluation of the BI maturity model, and sharing
of best practice. Case study and analysis and of
project findings
A visual tool for evaluating an HEI's
performance
High
High
High
High
D.7. Evaluation Methodology
D.7.1. For the key product (the demonstrator tool) we will evaluate using a
combination of internal and external attributes:
a) the quality and openness of the data interface to the tool, and its general
portability
b) the ease of use and adaptation of new data sources
c) the quality of the visual representations
d) software engineering qualities, such as robustness and maintainability
e) the feedback from internal stakeholders
f) the feedback and take-up by other HEIs
E.
Budget
Directly Incurred
Staff
February 10–
July 11
August 11– July
12
TOTAL £
February 10–
July 11
£667
£
£1,000
£
£667
£2,333
August 11– July
12
£1,333
£
£2,000
£
£1,333
£4,667
TOTAL £
£5,441
£10,883
£16,324
February 10–
July 11
£16,415
£434
£
£16,849
August 11– July
12
£32,896
£867
£
£33,763
TOTAL £
Total Directly Incurred Staff (A)
Non-Staff
Travel and expenses
Hardware/software
Dissemination
Evaluation
Other
Total Directly Incurred NonStaff (B)
Directly Incurred Total (C)
(A+B=C)
Directly Allocated
Staff
Estates
Other
Directly Allocated Total (D)
8
£2,000
£
£3,000
£
£2,000
£7,000
£49,312
£1,301
£
£50,613
Indirect Costs (E)
Total Project Cost (C+D+E)
Amount Requested from JISC
Institutional Contributions
£3,827
£7,655
£11,482
£26,117
£16,454
£9,664
£52,301
£32,950
£19,351
£78,419
£49,404
£29,015
JISC
63 %
Partners
37 %
Total
100%
Percentage Contributions over
the life of the project
No. FTEs used to calculate
indirect and estates charges,
and staff included
F.
No FTEs
0.17
Which Staff
Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research and
Enterprise
Director of Research and Enterprise
Principal Lecturer
Previous Experience of the Project Team
F.1. Those involved in the project have been carefully selected to reflect diversity of
requirements and past experience.
F.2. Professor Andrew Ball is the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research and Enterprise at the
University. Andrew Ball worked for Ruston Gas Turbines and the Ministry of Defence
and was sponsored by WM Engineering and the Royal Navy on the Total Technology
Scheme at the University of Manchester, from where he gained with a PhD in
Machinery Condition Monitoring. Andrew took the Shell Lectureship in Maintenance
Engineering at the University of Manchester in 1991, and was promoted to Professor
of Maintenance Engineering in 1999. He was Chair of the Research Committee in the
Manchester School of Engineering from 1999 to 2003 and thereafter was Head of
School from 2003 to 2004. In 2005 he became Dean of Graduate Education and in late
2007 moved to the University of Huddersfield as Professor of Diagnostic Engineering
and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise. In addition to his Pro-ViceChancellor role, Andrew is the Director of the UK Centre for Diagnostics Engineering –
the largest independent engineering diagnostics R&D activity in the world. Andrew is
the author of well over 200 technical and professional publications, and he has spent a
large amount of time lecturing and consulting to industry in all parts of the world. He is
also a Registered Expert Witness in 3 countries.
F.3. Dr Liz Towns-Andrews is Director of Research and Enterprise for the University. Liz
trained as a chemist and graduated with a PhD on X-ray crystallography, and also has
an MBA and is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. Previous employment includes
working as a scientist at Daresbury, Cheshire and Director of Knowledge Exchange for
the Science and Technology Facilities Council. Liz has headed numerous research
projects and current and recent external activities include Member of the Institute of
Physics; Member of the Industrial Advisory Committee for Cockcroft Institute; Director
and Board Member of STFC Innovations Ltd; Board Member and Director of Hanwell
Science and Innovation Campus Public Sector Partnership Ltd; Executive Director of
the STFC Economic Impact Advisory Board; STFC Director and Member of the RCUK
KiT and Economic Impact Group; ; Member of NWDA Science Council Sub-Committee
on Entrepreneurship; STFC Member of the RCUK Energy Co-ordination Group;
Member/Advisor of the TSB-RCUK Strategy Group; Member of the STFC-EPSRC
Senior Executive Bilateral; Member of the DBIS-STFC Bilateral Senior Executive.
F.4. Professor T. Lee McCluskey, Professor of software technology at the University of
Huddersfield and Director of Research for the University's School of Computing and
Engineering. His research interests include software and knowledge engineering,
semantic technologies, automated planning and machine learning. His research group
has developed a series of award-winning knowledge engineering aids which help in
9
F.5.
F.6.
F.7.
F.8.
the formulation process of structural and heuristic planning knowledge, ranging from
interactive interfaces to fully automated learning tools. He is a member of the
Executive Council of the International Conference on Automatic Planning and
Scheduling; a member of the British Computer Society; and has been a member of
EPSRC's Electoral College. Lee was also project manager on the recent JISC project
call 11/09 – Research Information Management.
Dr Zhijie Xu is a Reader and the Director of Graduate Education in the School of
Computing and Engineering at the University of Huddersfield. His research has mainly
been focused on the areas of Computer Graphics, Interactive Visualisation, Virtual
Reality (VR), and Web Technologies. In the last decade, he has published 60 papers
in various journals in the corresponding areas and in many referenced national and
international conferences. His original work in VR for manufacturing simulation has
contributed to the advancement of knowledge in the VR and computer simulation
areas and was highly regarded by peer researchers in this specialized field. Dr. Xu
was invited gave a keynote speech about Virtual Manufacturing in the "High-Tech for
the New Millennium " International Workshop at QingDao City in the P. R. China. The
event was sponsored by the Chinese Embassy in the UK and the British Council. Dr
Xu is also a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE),
Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), the British Computer Society (BCS),
and the Higher Education Academy (HEA). Since joining the University in 1999, Dr. Xu
has supervised 7 postgraduate research projects funded by external funding bodies,
industry and the University.
Kirsty Taylor is the Business Intelligence and Marketing Manager for the Research and
Enterprise Department and has responsibility for collating rim data from University
information systems and generating informative reports that can be used at senior
level for strategic decision making. Previous to this Kirsty coordinated and submitted
the University of Huddersfield‟s RAE2008 submission, and has extensive knowledge of
research administration at all levels. Kirsty was projects officer on the recent JISC
project Call 11/09 – Research Information Management, part of the project team on
call 05/09 of the Relationship Management Programme and has recently been invited
to present at the JISC annual conference in 2011 in relation to call 11/09. Through the
work outlined within this proposal Kirsty will be investigating the possibilities of
submitting a proposal to study for a Masters by Research which will be based upon
elements of the project and this will be fully funded by the University.
Graham Stone has been working with e-resources for over 15 years. He is responsible
for the management of the Library Electronic Resources Team, Deputy Head of
Technical Services and University Repository. A member of the UKSG Committee
since 2001, Graham is UKSG Secretary and a member of the Serials and Journal of
Electronic Resource Librarianship editorial boards. He is editor-in-chief of the EResources Management Handbook and has recently written a chapter for the new
Facet publication Digital Information: Order or anarchy? Graham also sits on a number
of library advisory committees including, JISC Collections, Oxford University Press
journals, Springer journals and ProQuest, He has also led two JISC projects, the
University of Bolton Institutional Repository and more recently the Climbié Inquiry Date
Corpus Online project.
Dr Ian Pitchford is PGR and REF Manager at the University and has over eight years‟
experience in the administration of research and postgraduate research matters and
has worked at universities in the United Kingdom and United States. Dr Pitchford
holds a PhD in evolutionary development psychopathology, a Master‟s degree in
psychiatry and Bachelor‟s degrees in biomedical sciences and in combined sciences.
He is a Chartered Biologist, a member of the Institute of Biology, and a member of the
Association of Research Managers and Administrators and is currently focusing upon
the upcoming REF and attended the ARMA seminar on the „development of the REF
data requirements‟.
10
Project Name : Visualisation of Research Strengths (VoRS)
Version:1.0
Date: April 2011
JISC WORK PACKAGE
WORKPACKAGES
Month
1: Visualisation
Requirements
2: Development of
Visualisation
Software
3: Development of
Interface
Specifications
4: Development of
Interface Software
5: Case Study and
evaluation
6: Project Management
7: Quality Assurance
8: Evaluation
9: Dissemination
10: Exit and
Sustainability
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Project start date: 1 March 2011
Project completion date: 31 August 2012
Duration: 18 months
Page 1 of 8
Document title: JISC Work Package
Last updated: February 2011
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Project Name: Visualisation of Research Strengths (VoRS)
Version:1.0
Date: April 2011
Workpackage and activity
WORKPACKAGE 1:
Visualisation Requirements
Earliest
start
date
Latest
completion
date
Outputs
(clearly indicate deliverables & reports in bold)
Milestone
Responsibility
01.03.201
31.05.2011
A short working document outlining
requirements of stakeholders in relation
to a visualisation tool.
1
Project Team
01.06.2011
30.11.2011
A working document that will include an
outline of detailed visualisation features
and their requirements including feature
mapping.
2
Project Team B
Objective:
To gather detailed requirements and objectives for
the visualisation interface.
1. Distribute relevant background documentation to
Stakeholders.
2. Investigate and gather detailed requirements of
a visualisation tool from the viewpoint of
University Managers, planners and stakeholders
in general.
3. Consider the data and information held on the
JISC InfoNET re Senior Management
requirements.
4. Consideration to be made in relation to Service
Orientated Architecture in business information
Visual DSS.
WORKPACKAGE 2:
Development of Visualisation Software
Objective:
To investigate and implement visualisation tools and
methods as per stakeholder requirements ready for
integration into the Interface Software. This work
needs to be carried out in close co-ordination with
WP3.
5. Examine in detail visualisation features (texture,
landscape, colour, depth, 3-D etc).
6. Specify data to feature mapping and details of
Page 2 of 8
Document title: VoRS_Workpackage_v2.doc
Last updated: August y 2011
Project Name: Visualisation of Research Strengths (VoRS)
Version:1.0
Date: April 2011
Workpackage and activity
Earliest
start
date
Latest
completion
date
Outputs
(clearly indicate deliverables & reports in bold)
Milestone
Responsibility
viewing functions, in association with
stakeholders.
7. The use of token data within the interface
specification, and prototype visualisation options
with stakeholder involvement. Basic
visualisation of the background scheme form
academic subject data, and the alignment of the
core repository data onto this background, will
be finalised.
WORKPACKAGE 3:
Development of Interface Specifications
Objective:
To identify methods and processes to acquire
internal and external data that can be implemented
into the interface software and be visualised as per
requirements of the stakeholders. This work needs
to be carried out in close co-ordination with WP2.
8. Identify methods and processes to acquire
external data. For example: look into feasibility
of running each publication title through Google
Scholar and obtaining initiate acquisition of an
outlet to quality mapping.
9. Initiate acquisition of an outlet to quality
mapping. Review data standards such as CERIFXML and the use of ontology languages such as
OWL and compose tentative ideas for interface
specifications to the Visualisation tool.
10. Review possible bases for the academic subject
ontology – in particular subject are descriptors
11. Source and assemble processes to extract
external data
Page 3 of 8
Document title: VoRS_Workpackage_v2.doc
Last updated: August y 2011
01.03.2011
31.11.2011
A working document outlining methods
and processes that could be used to
acquire internal and external data
sources including the review of data
standards such as CERIF XML and the use
of ontology languages such as OWL.
2
Project Team A
Project Name: Visualisation of Research Strengths (VoRS)
Version:1.0
Date: April 2011
Workpackage and activity
Earliest
start
date
Latest
completion
date
Outputs
(clearly indicate deliverables & reports in bold)
Milestone
Responsibility
12. Finalise a set of inputs for an initial version of
the tool
13. Create an extensible prototype interface
specification for the tool
14. To create a process to extract internal data from
the University of Huddersfield Research
Information Management (RIM) system, and
integrate it with external attributes (e.g.
integrating outlet quality data with citation and
funding source data), and to assemble the
integrated data sources to the prototype
interface specification.
WORKPACKAGE 4:
Development of Interface Software
Objective:
To develop a tool that can be used for both internal
purposes at the University for BI purposes and also
investigate the potential of providing comparisons
with other HEIs repositories data. To provide
rigorous testing at all stages of implementation.
15. Project Teams A and B to finalise the data
interfaces adding advanced functions to the
visualisation and prototype the fully functional
internal demonstrator system for alpha testing.
16. Initiate a first version of the demonstrator tool
17. Integrate feedback and alpha testing results into
the production of a first version of the
demonstrator tool for beta testing
18. Interface the demonstrator tool with
collaborating HEI repositories, and demonstrate
Page 4 of 8
Document title: VoRS_Workpackage_v2.doc
Last updated: August y 2011
01.12.2011
31.05.2012
To develop an interface software
package specification that will be
available to the HEI community via
website.
A working interface software package
that can demonstrate the visualisation of
BI data requirements of the University.
3
Project Team
Project Name: Visualisation of Research Strengths (VoRS)
Version:1.0
Date: April 2011
Workpackage and activity
Earliest
start
date
Latest
completion
date
Outputs
(clearly indicate deliverables & reports in bold)
Milestone
the results and the capabilities of the tool.
Produce comparisons of repositories, and
investigate the identification of subject
benchmarks by depth and coverage visualisation.
19. Place the demonstrator software with its
interface specification onto the project website.
WORKPACKAGE 5:
Case Study and Evaluation
Objective:
The case study should show the potential of the
demonstrator and contribute to further introduction
of the Interface software and resulting outputs.
20. Create an audio description of project and
demonstrator.
21. Invite internal stakeholder and the wider
community to feedback and comment on the
demonstrator via on-line and also workshop
event held at the University.
22. Evaluate usage of demonstrator on project
website.
Page 5 of 8
Document title: VoRS_Workpackage_v2.doc
Last updated: August y 2011
01.06.2012
31.08.2012
Creation of an audio descriptor of
project and demonstrator.
A report that will include images of and
description of the demonstrator’s
tools/methods and how this can be
applied to other HEIs repositories.
An evaluation report outlining internal
and external stakeholder feedback and
comments on the demonstrator and
conclusion of how this can be taken
forward within the HEI community.
Including best practice examples.
4
Responsibility
Project Name: Visualisation of Research Strengths (VoRS)
Version:1.0
Date: April 2011
Workpackage and activity
WORKPACKAGE 6:
Project Management
Earliest
start
date
01.03.2011
Latest
completion
date
Ongoing
24. Attend JISC BI Kick Off Meeting
31.03.2011
Page 6 of 8
Document title: VoRS_Workpackage_v2.doc
Last updated: August y 2011
Milestone
31.08.2012
Objective:
Effectively organise project work and ensure timely
delivery
23. Set up a project Blog
25. Submit project plan to JISC and upload to
relevant areas of the BI project Wiki
26. Formalise membership of Project Group and
Steering Group
27. Development of external project website for
dissemination of materials to the community
28. Arrange and coordinate quarterly meetings of
groups to evaluate progress and monitor
engagement with JISC BI and HEI sector
29. Prepare and submit progress reports to JISC
Programme Manager
30. Prepare and submit Draft Final Report to JISC
Programme Manager
31. Prepare and submit Final Report to JISC
Programme Manager
Outputs
(clearly indicate deliverables & reports in bold)
Project
Manager and
project officer
Blog
01.03.2011
01.05.2011
Project Plan
01.05.2011
31.6.2011
Membership listing of project group and
steering group
Project Website
Ongoing
Responsibility
Ongoing
Reports at quarterly meetings, meeting
minutes
Ongoing
Progress Reports
31.06.2012
31.07.2012
Draft Final Report
31.07.2012
31.08.2012
Final Report
5
Project Name: Visualisation of Research Strengths (VoRS)
Version:1.0
Date: April 2011
Workpackage and activity
Earliest
start
date
Latest
completion
date
Outputs
(clearly indicate deliverables & reports in bold)
Milestone
Responsibility
WORKPACKAGE 7:
Quality Assurance
Objective:
Ensure project deliverables meet quality criteria
32. Review project website
Monthly
33. Review all outputs
Ongoing
Project
Manager and
project web
developer
34. Review Final Draft Report
01.06.2012
31.07.2012
Project Group
35. Review Final Report
01.07.2012
31.08.2012
Project Group
TBC
TBC
WORKPACKAGE 8:
Dissemination
Objective:
To promote the project, raise awareness and engage
with stakeholders, engage with JISC and other
projects in the programme
36. Internal Stakeholder engagement workshop
37. Internal Communications Newsletter
38. Invite internal stakeholder and the wider
community to feedback and comment on the
Page 7 of 8
Document title: VoRS_Workpackage_v2.doc
Last updated: August y 2011
Ongoing
TBC
TBC
An internal information workshop to
disseminate the project findings and
ways forward for the University
Ongoing submission of articles to
internal communication systems to
engage and inform internal stakeholders
Project
Manager and
Project Officer
Project
Manager and
Project Officer
Project Team
Project Name: Visualisation of Research Strengths (VoRS)
Version:1.0
Date: April 2011
Workpackage and activity
Earliest
start
date
Latest
completion
date
Outputs
(clearly indicate deliverables & reports in bold)
Milestone
Responsibility
demonstrator via on-line and also workshop
event held at the University.
WORKPACKAGE 9:
Exit/Sustainability
Objective:
Ensure that the project outputs continue to be used
and developed
39. Adapt case study for use in the University’s
Research Information Handbook
40. Project website to be maintained to enable and
encourage knowledge sharing opportunities
Page 8 of 8
Document title: VoRS_Workpackage_v2.doc
Last updated: August y 2011
TBC
University RIM Handbook
Ongoing
Project website
Project
Manager and
project officer
Project officer
and project
web developer