Collaborative Tools to Support Business and Community Engagement

Do you collaborate with external partners in business and the community?

Are you part of a regional partnership or Lifelong Learning Network trying to improve business and community engagement?

Could some areas (for example your Arts and Science departments) collaborate better in new ventures with a partner?

Are you considering the use of an online collaborative tool to help you with any of the above?

If you have answered YES to any of the above questions, then you may be interested in joining our project to trial online collaborative tools.

Background

Under the BCE Programme JISC infoNet are happy to announce 2 calls for expressions of interest.

• Trialling of Online Collaborative Tools
• Embedding Business and Community Engagement

Business and Community Engagement (BCE) is the strategic management of interactions, partnerships and transactions with partners and clients external to the institution. The scope of engagement includes the commercial sector, the public sector (including charities and trusts), the cultural landscape and the social and civic arena.

JISC, through its Advisory Services, is running a project to trial online collaborative tools to support Business and Community Engagement (BCE) activities within a range of institutional contexts. We are looking for partner institutions with an open and proactive outlook willing to run a trial in order to identify good practice, challenges and issues and to share lessons learned. Funding of up to £30,000 is available to partner institutions to contribute towards the cost of participating in the project. For further details of the BCE programme visit www.jisc.ac.uk/bce.

What are the benefits to you?

• Support, including specialist support from JISC Advisory Services, to enable you to trial an online tool to enable better collaboration between you and your partners.
• Opportunities for networking and mutual support amongst people running similar trials in different contexts. This could further your involvement in the BCE field by offering new collaborative partnerships.

How will the wider BCE community benefit from your involvement?

The final phase of the project will be an analysis and synthesis of the trials to create structured advice and guidance for BCE practitioners.

What are the selection criteria?

Anyone involved in BCE activity in a UK FE or HE institution is invited to submit an idea to us - but you must have the agreement of your institution to go ahead with the trial if selected.

We will be looking for proposals that:

• Demonstrate innovative use of online tools in a BCE context and/or adapt a tool already in use within the institution to a new BCE context
• Show how an online tool could solve a clearly articulated problem
• Show commitment from all necessary stakeholders

Within the project as a whole we will be looking for a reasonable spread between use in external, regional and inter-disciplinary contexts.

We will invite a selection of applicants to present their draft project plan to a panel who will both assess and help develop it into the final trial.

What is the timescale for the project?

If shortlisted, you will be invited to a panel meeting on the 20th or 21st of January 2009 taking place at The Studio, Birmingham to discuss your proposal. After which:

• Trials are expected to start in February 2009 and finish in June 2010. However 12 month trials may also be considered.
• A start-up and support meeting is scheduled for 18th and 19th March 2009; this will take the form of a drop-in surgery, a series of JISC Advisory Services workshops and a chance for you to form support groups with other trials.
• An open showcasing event will take place in June 2010. Your plan should include a total of 5 days' attendance at support activities.

What do I do next?

If you would like to take part in the project all you need to do is send an email to jiscinfonet@northumbria.ac.uk no later than 5pm on Monday 3rd November 2008.

Tell us the following (in no more than 2 sides of A4):

1. A little bit about your institution and your collaborative partners - including why you meet the project criteria.
2. Which aspects of your work with your partners could online collaborative tools assist with - or if you already use a tool, what would be the new context of use for this project?
3. An outline plan of the trial and how you think it meets the project criteria.
4. Your role in the institution and an indicative list of the job titles and roles of the staff that you expect to take part in the trials.
5. Confirmation from a member of your senior management team that the institution is willing to commit to the project.
6. Confirmation from your IT Department that they will support the use of online collaboration tools with your BCE partners.
7. Confirmation that you can attend the panel session in January and the start-up meeting in March.