A |
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| ADS |
Archaeology Data Service One of the Service Providers of the Arts and Humanities Data Service (JISC-funded service)
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| AHDS |
Arts and Humanities Data Service The Executive for this distributed service is based at King's College London (JISC-funded service)
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| AHRC |
Arts and Humanities Research Council formerly Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB)
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| ALP |
Association of Learning Providers
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| ALPSP |
Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
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| ALT |
Association for Learning Technology
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| AOC |
Association of Colleges
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| The Archives Hub |
The Archives Hub enables inter-networked delivery of collection and multi-level archival finding aids (JISC-funded service)
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| Ariadne |
Ariadne is an electronic and print newsetter for librarians and information scientists.
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| ASC |
Association of Scottish Colleges
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| Athens |
Athens system created and operated by NISS, provides access management for subscription services supplied by publishers and subscription agents. Athens is a service of EduServ (JISC-funded service)
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| AUA |
Association of University Administrators
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B |
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| BBSRC |
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (formerly AFRC)
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BCE |
Business and Community Engagement - also known as 'knowledge transfer and exchange' and third stream (in reference to the third stream of funding alongside teaching and research). BCE aims to exchange knowledge and expertise with external partners (businesses in the private and public sector) for economic and social benefit. JISC supports this activity through facilitating collaboration, knowledge management and institutional change for knowledge transfer and exchange, through the appropriate deployment and support of tools and technologies. |
| Becta |
Becta is the Government's lead partner in the strategic development and delivery of its e-strategy for the schools and the learning and skills sectors. Becta provides strategic leadership in the innovative and effective use of ICT to enable the transformation of learning, teaching and educational organisations for the benefit of every learner.
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| BFI |
British Film Institute
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| BIDS |
Bath Information and Data Services BIDS provides access to datasets. Now part of IngentaConnect.
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| Biz/ed |
Business Education on the Internet An Internet gateway to facilitate access to information about business and economics.
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| BL |
The British Library
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| BOPCAS |
British Official Publications Current Awareness Service
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| BUFVC |
British Universities Film and Video Council develops and coordinates the use of film and related media, materials and techniques for the purposes of teaching and research (JISC-funded service)
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C |
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| Capital Funding |
Capital funding is the funding received by JISC on a financial year basis (April - March). The current capital programme 2006-2009 is funded by HEFCE and HEFCW. |
| CHEST |
CHEST is a service of EduServ, negotiates for the supply of software, data, information, training materials and other IT related products on behalf of UK Research Councils and the Higher and Further Education community in the UK and Republic of Ireland (JISC-funded service)
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| CCLRC |
Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils
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| CIE |
Common Information Environment (now Strategic Content Alliance)
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| Circular |
An announcement circulated to UK colleges and universities to announce new JISC innovation programmes. A circular acts as a call for proposals, inviting institutions to submit proposals for specific projects and bid for the funding available. See our funding opportunities
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| Cluster |
A method of grouping projects within a JISC innovation programme, by topic, themes, or regionally. Projects within a cluster will have much in common and meet to exchange information and develop shared approaches to common issues.
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| CNI |
Coalition for Networked Information US-based organisation with a remit to advance scholarship and intellectual productivity by realising the potential of advanced networks. JISC is a member of CNI.
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| COLEG |
Colleges Open Learning Exchange Group established to develop learning opportunities through member Scottish Further Education Colleges working together to generate, exchange and promote the use of flexible learning materials.
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| CoLRiC |
Council for Learning Resources in Colleges
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| Committee secretary |
The secretary of one of the six JISC sub-committees that fund innovation programmes.
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| COPAC |
COPAC is a union catalogue, giving free access to merged online cataloges of CURL (JISC_funded service)
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| Core Funding |
Core funding is the annual funding received by JISC on an academic year basis (August - July) from its core funders (HEFCE, SFC, HEFCW, DCELLS, DEL). |
| CURL |
Consortium of University Research Libraries
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D |
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| DANTE |
Delivery of Advanced Networking to Europe a not-for-profit company providing academic and research network links to most European countries.
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| DCC |
Digital Curation Centre supports UK institutions who store, manage and preserve data to help ensure their enhancement and their continuing long-term use. The purpose of the centre is to provide a national focus for research and development into curation issues and to promote expertise and good practice, both nationally and internationally, for the management of all research outputs in digital format. |
DCSF
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Department for Children, Schools and Families is responsible for improving the focus on all aspects of policy affecting children and young people, as part of the Government’s aim to deliver educational excellence.
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| DDA |
Disability Discrimination Act
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| DEL |
Department for Employment and Learning (Northern Ireland). Previously DENI, then DHFETE.
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| DfES |
Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has replaced the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
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| DIUS |
Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) is responsible for driving forward the Government’s long-term vision to make Britain one of the best places in the world for science, research and innovation, and to deliver the ambition of a world-class skills base.
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| DPA |
Data Protection Act
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| DRRG |
Database Resources Research Group
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| DTI |
Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) has replaced the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry). This department works closely with the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS).
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| Dublin Core |
Dublin Core is shorthand for the Dublin Metadata Core Element Set which is a core list of metadata elements agreed at the OCLC/NCSA Metadata Workshop in Dublin, Ohio, in March 1995. The Dublin Core is positioned as a simple information resource description. However, it also aims to provide a basis for semantic interoperability between other, probably more complicated, formats. (see Metadata and Z39.50).
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E |
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| EDINA |
EDINA provides a library of data, information and research resources (JISC-funded national datacentre)
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| EDUCAUSE |
EDUCAUSE is a non-profit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology in the United States.
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| EEVL |
EEVL is a gateway providing access to quality electronic resources for engineering, mathematics and computing (JISC-funded service)
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| Electronic Journal |
A learned journal, but not necessarily refereed, on the Internet. Electronic journals offer reduced time to publication, allow hyperlinking to other documents, and, in some cases, are enhanced by multimedia materials.
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| ELWa |
Education and Learning Wales The National Council for Education and Training for Wales and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales are Assembly Sponsored Public Bodies, responsible for all post-16 education and training in Wales. Together these organisations are known as ELWa, Education and Learning Wales.
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| EMBASE |
Excerpta Medica Database
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| EMMAN |
East Midlands Metropolitan Area Network
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| EPSRC |
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (formerly SERC, Science and Engineering Research Council).
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| ERIC |
Educational Resources Information Centre a national information system designed to provide users with ready access to an extensive body of education-related literature. ERIC, established in 1966, is supported by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, and the National Library of Education.
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| ESRC |
Economic & Social Research Council
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F |
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| FEFCW |
Further Education Funding Council for Wales
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| FERL |
Further Education Resources for Learning An Internet based information service for lecturers and other practitioners in Further Education colleges funded by the FEFC and managed by Becta.
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| FOI |
Freedom of Information (Act)
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H |
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| HDS |
History Data Service One of the Service Providers of the Arts and Humanities Data Service (JISC-funded service)
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| HEDS |
Higher Education Digitisation Service (JISC-funded service)
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| HEFCE |
Higher Education Funding Council for England
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| HEFCW |
Higher Education Funding Council for Wales
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| HESA |
Higher Education Statistics Agency
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| HESDA |
Higher Education Staff Development Agency
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| HOLIS |
HESA Online Information Service
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I |
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| IBSS |
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences Jointly funded by JISC and the ESRC.
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| IETF |
Internet Engineering Task Force the organisation which co-ordinates Internet standards.
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| IMS |
Instructional Management Systems Global Learning Consortium. A global coalition of academic, commercial and government organisations, working together to define the Internet architecture for learning. IMS is an initiative of EDUCAUSE. The funded service JISC-CETIS was established to provide information on IMS standards and initiatives.
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| Information Environment |
The aim of the Information Environment is to help provide convenient access to resources for research and learning through the use of resource discovery and resource management tools and the development of better services and practice. The Information Environment aims to allow discovery, access and use of resources for research and learning irrespective of their location.
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| Internet 2 |
Internet2 is a development project funded by over 100 American universities to develop leading edge Internet applications and the next version of the Internet Protocol (IP).
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| Intute |
Intute is a free online service providing you with access to the very best web resources for education and research. The service is created by a network of UK universities and partners.
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| Intute: social sciences |
Intute: social sciences is a free online service gateway to quality resources for the social sciences; evaluated and selected by a network of subject specialists. Funded jointly by ESRC and JISC.
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| IPR |
Intellectual Property Rights
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| ITT |
Invitation to Tender - A tender document used by JISC, typically to request proposals for short and well-defined studies to support innovation programmes. See our funding opportunities
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J |
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| JANET |
Joint Academic NETwork This links all higher education institutions, Research Council sites, many FE colleges and other bodies with a legitimate interest in working with the higher education and research community.
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| JANET-CERT |
Now known as JANET CSIRT. Formerly JANET-Computer Emergency Response Team
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| JANET-CSIRT |
JANET Computer Security & Incident Response Team Run by JANET to help deal with illegal and improper use of JANET.
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| JIIE |
JISC Integrated Information Environment committee JISC sub-committee
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| JCN |
JISC Network committee JISC sub-committee
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| JSR |
JISC Support of Research committee JISC sub-committee
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JOS
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JISC Organisational committee JISC sub-committee |
| JLT |
JISC Learning and Teaching committee JISC sub-committee
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| JISC |
Joint Information Systems Committee. JISC is an independent advisory body that works with further and higher education by providing strategic guidance, advice and opportunities use to use ICT to support learning, teaching, research and administration.
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| JISC CETIS |
JISC Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards Formerly known as the UK IMS project (JISC-funded service)
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| JISCInfonet |
JISCInfonet service provides free online advice, tools and publications to enable further and higher education institutions to plan and implement information systems. Other resources include: workshops, a national information systems database and an information systems planning timeline.
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| JISCMail |
JISCMail service to facilitate email discussion, collaboration and communication within the UK academic community and beyond (replaced Mailbase in November 2000)
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| JISC Legal |
JISC Legal information service. A pilot service with the primary function of making available current legal information to those working in Information Services of the FE and HE sectors. It must be stressed that the Service does not profess to give professional legal advice, and any material provided is for informative purposes only (JISC-funded service)
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| JNT |
JNT Association
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| JSTOR |
Journal STORage system based in the US, mirrored at MIDAS. Provides online access to complete runs of back issues of journals in many subject areas including the humanities and science.
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L |
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| Learning and Teaching Scotland |
Learning and Teaching Scotland is a national public body charged by the Scottish Executive with providing advice, support, resources and staff development which will in turn enhance lifelong learning.
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| LSC |
Learning and Skills Council
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| LSN |
Learning and Skills Network (LSN) is an independent not-for-profit organisation committed to making a difference to education and training.
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M |
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| MAAS |
MAAS negotiates for the supply of moving picture and sound resources for JISC.
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| Metadata |
Data describing an information resource, sometimes referred to as 'data about data'.
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| Middleware |
Middleware, or 'glue', is a layer of software between a network and applications. This software provides services such as identification, authentication, authorisation, directories, and security. In today's Internet, applications usually have to provide these services themselves, which leads to competing and incompatible standards. By promoting standardisation and interoperability, middleware will make advanced network applications much easier to use.
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| MIMAS |
Manchester InforMation and Associated Services Provides access to datasets and to specialised statistical and other computational services (JISC-funded national datacentre)
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| MLE |
Managed Learning Environment
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| Monitoring Unit |
Monitoring Unit monitors JISC's network infrastructure and network content services, liaising with the staff of each service. It collects regular monitoring data from these services, and publishes regular reports on overall performance, trends and significant incidents for submission to JISC.
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| MRC |
Medical Research Council
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N |
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| NAMSS |
National Association for Managers of Student Services in colleges is an organisation of managers and student advisers in Student Services in UK colleges, mainly in post-16 education, training, community and adult education.
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| NATSPEC |
Association of National Specialist Colleges aims to promote opportunities for high quality education and training in residential or day settings, for students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.
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| NERC |
Natural Environment Research Council
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| NESLI |
National Electronic Site Licensing Initiative the successor to the Pilot Site Licence Initiative. Provides UK higher education institutions with access to nationally negotiated electronic journals on a subscription basis.
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| Netskills |
Netskills produces training programmes and materials to help develop network skills which will enable more effective use of the internet for teaching, research and administration.
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| NGfL |
National Grid for Learning A government initiative to set up a national focal point for learning on the Internet. Primary, secondary and tertiary education, lifelong learning services, museums and other cultural bodies and industry are all expected to contribute to the development of the Grid.
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| NIACE |
National Institute of Adult Continuing Education has a broad remit to promote lifelong learning opportunities for adults.
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| NILTA |
National Information and Learning Technologies Association (for FE). NILTA is committed to the provision of support to member institutions in the use of information and learning technologies within all areas of the post-16, lifelong learning sector.
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| NSF |
National Science Foundation in the US. JISC is collaborating with the NSF under its three year International Digital Libraries Research programme.
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O |
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| OFSTED |
Office for Standards in Education
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| OMNI |
Organising Medical Networked Information An information gateway providing access to quality resources on the Internet for clinical, research and management aspects of health and medicine.
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| Open Source |
Any software whose code is available for users to look at and modify freely. Linux is the best-known example.
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| OST |
Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) brings together functions of the OST (Office of Science and Technology) from the former Department of Trade and Industry with further and higher education and skills, previously part of the Department for Education and Skills.
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| OTA |
Oxford Text Archive One of the Service Providers of the Arts and Humanities Data Service (JISC-funded service)
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P |
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| PA |
Publishers Association
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| PALS |
Publisher and Libraries Solutions committee
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| PADS |
Performing Arts Data Service One of the Service Providers of the Arts and Humanities Data Service (JISC-funded service)
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| Portal |
A network service that brings together content from diverse distributed resources
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| PPARC |
Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council
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Q |
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| QAA |
Quality Assurance Agency
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| QCA |
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority
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| QIA |
Quality Improvement Agency The agency is a non-departmental public body and the successor to the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA).
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R |
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| RDN |
Now known as Intute A free online service providing you with access to the very best web resources for education and research. The service is created by a network of UK universities and partners.
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| RSC |
Regional Support Centres established across the country to ensure that the Further Education community is able to take full advantage of JISC's services and as part of JISC's involvement in the National Learning Network.
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S |
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| SCONUL |
Standing Council of National and University Libraries
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| SCOP |
Standing Conference of Principals
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| Scottish Enterprise |
Scottish Enterprise has responsibility for enterprise and development, working through Local Enterprise Companies (LECs). |
| SCRE |
Scottish Council for Research in Education
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| SFEU |
Scottish Further Education Unit is the primary agency which contributes to the development of learning provision within FE colleges through the support of staff and the curriculum. The SFEU supports the Virtual Learning Centre which provides access to online staff development for subject specialists, information services and an information gateway.
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| SHEFC |
Scottish Higher Education Funding Council
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| SOSIG |
Now known as Intute: social sciences A free online service gateway to quality resources for the social sciences; evaluated and selected by a network of subject specialists. Funded jointly by ESRC and JISC.
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| SQA |
Scottish Qualifications Agency
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| SuperJANET |
A high speed, broadband backbone that forms the core of JANET. Read more about SuperJANET5
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| SWERN |
Bristol and West of England Metropolitan Area Network
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T |
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| TASI |
Technical Advisory Service for Images (JISC-funded service)
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| TechDis |
TechDis provides information and advice on the use of new and existing Information and Communication Technology (ICT), to enhance access to learning and teaching, research and administration activities for students and staff with disabilities (JISC-funded service)
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| TechWatch |
Technology and Standards Watch keeps track of developments in information and communications technology that might be expected to have an impact on the core business of tertiary education in a few years time. They commission reports on important technical and standards issues, and have links to resources for over 100 specific technologies (JISC-funded service)
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| TERENA |
Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association created by the merger of RARE and EARN
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U |
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| UCAS |
Universities and Colleges Admissions Service
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| UCISA |
Universities and Colleges Information System Association
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| The UK Data Archive |
UKDA is a national resource centre for computer readable data in the social sciences and humanities. Jointly funded by the University of Essex, JISC and the ESRC.
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| UK Mirror Service |
The UK Mirror Service (JISC-funded service) |
| UKERNA |
Now known as JANET. The company contracted by JISC, through JCN, to manage JANET and SuperJANET. Formerly known as UKERNA (United Kingdom Educational and Research Network Association) - the trading name of the JNT Association (which was formerly the JNT, Joint Network Team).
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| UKOLN |
UKOLN is based at the University of Bath and is funded by JISC and Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, as well as project funding from JISC and the European Union.
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| UUK |
Universities UK Formerly known as the CVCP
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V |
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| VADS |
Visual Arts Data Service One of the Service Providers of the Arts and Humanities Data Service (JISC-funded service)
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| VTAS |
JANET Video Technology Advisory Service
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| VLE |
Virtual Learning Environment
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W |
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| W3C |
World Wide Web Consortium a global industry consortium run jointly by the Laboratory for Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of technology and INRIA in France. It exists to develop common standards for the evolution of the World Wide Web. JISC is a member of W3C.
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| WFC |
Welsh Funding Councils
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Z |
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| Z39.50 |
A NISO (National Information Standards Office) standard protocol for metadata - information describing an information resource, such as a dataset. Consistently defined metadata permits rapid and effective browsing of a wide range of data resources, an essential requirement for efficient use of electronic resources distributed across a network.
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