JISC

Start date: 3 May 2004

End date: 31 January 2007

Funding programme: Core Middleware: Technology Development programme

JISC theme(s): Access management

IMPETUS : Infrastructure for Multi-Professional Education and Training Using Shibboleth  

The project involves the implementation and testing of Shibboleth - middleware which has been developed to support inter-institutional sharing of electronic resources – in the Multi-Professional Education and Training Centre, a collaborative venture between the University Hospitals of Leicester, the University of Leicester, and De Montfort University. 

The MPET Centre requires a sophisticated authentication and authorisation infrastructure, capable of handling shared access to resources at the three partner organisations, for a wide range of users, roles and permissions - but also maintainable without a large central administrative function. We believe that Shibboleth could provide this, together with the necessary levels of security, scalability and flexibility. 

The Project will report to the HE/FE community on the feasibility of using Shibboleth in the context of the MPET Centre, the technical, organisational and legal aspects of its implementation, and any areas requiring further research and development. The Project will be enable Shibboleth to be tested in a setting where resource-sharing between organisations is a fundamental prerequisite, and which is likely to become a model for other initiatives in healthcare education and training in the UK.