T2: Developing Sustainability and Impact Theme: Who's responsible for sustainability and impact?

Session Overview

This session will offer a lively debate about who is responsible for sustaining JISC project innovations and ensuring their impact: JISC Innovation Group? JISC Advance? Projects? Originating institution(s)? Suppliers? Inspired individuals? Entrepreneurs?  Outside Investors?  We’ll also seek to identify the ‘who’ related barriers and drivers for sustainability.

Chair David Rose will set the scene, then each panellist will briefly advocate their viewpoint and experience of ‘who’ is key to sustainability and impact to the audience, from the worlds of JISC content, systems and new process projects.  We’ll then enter a ‘Question Time’ style debate and discussion, where the audience is encourage be encouraged to ask searching questions, challenge the panellists perspective and add their own experience, fuelling the debate.  We’ll conclude by looking at the way forward – how the JISC community can overcome these challenges and barriers to transform the impact of projects and programmes.

The session will be documented and outcomes will be fed into the development of a JISC Sustainability and Impact Toolkit, allowing the fruits of this session to be sustained too.

Session Chair

David Rose, Senior Consultant, JISC CETIS

Session Chair David Rose is lead and coordinator of the JISC Enterprise Architecture Practice Group, a key part of the FSD Programme, and has many years experience helping organisations achieve results through innovation and change as a senior manager and consultant.  He emphasises the human dimension in the tricky challenge of turning new ideas  into sustainable businesses and services and argues that no single organisation can be responsible, rather a chain of actors who need to be thinking ‘impact’ and ‘exploitation’ from the start – and distinctive actors at that!

Panel

• Catherine Grout, JISC Programme Director (e-Content)

Catherine Grout is a JISC Programme Director for the e-content area.  She has been involved in JISC sustainability activities from the start, including the Sustainability Handbook and the JISC involvement with the Strategic Content Alliance that has commissioned a body of work on business models and sustainability. Catherine has some provocative views and believes there is an effective common approach to sustainability, though the solutions vary widely to suit the opportunity – one approach suits all, but not one size!

• John Burke, JISC Infonet

John Burke is responsible for JISC infoNet’s project-related resources and training including P3M (Portfolio, Programme and Project Management), Process Review, Risk and Change Management.  John stresses the importance of thorough planning from day one, towards having a resourced and if necessary layered structure for the management, maintenance, operation and user support mechanisms for any technology solutions being delivered. “No project is just about technology,” he says, “They all fail if the people aspects are not considered.”

• Wilbert Kraan, Assistant Director of JISC CETIS

Wilbert Kraan is Assistant Director of JISC CETIS and looks after standards activities, relationships with other consortia and has a special interest in the semantic web.  CETIS hosts communities of practice that develop from programmes and argues that it’s the personal relationships involved – that everyone has to work at – that enable promising new ideas to be sustained and exploited

• Les Carr, Technical Director of ePrints

Les Carr is an experienced JISC project manager and is Technical Director of ePrints, now in its tenth year since its origins in the JISC funded Open Archive initiative.  Though based on an outstanding proposition, such longevity needs powerful human dynamics too, and Les has some interesting and challenging insights as a result, and lessons for today’s promising ventures 

What can delegates expect to learn / gain / take away from the session?

A practical understanding and ideas,  tips and contacts for sustaining project outcomes and exploiting results in new services, systems, processes and teaching, learning and research activities.

Who should attend?

• Project leaders and innovation minded team members
• Institution officers responsible for spin outs and ventures
• Funding body senior managers officers concerned with increasing funding investment returns and impact
• Innovation specialists
• Suppliers entrepreneurs who see opportunities in JISC project results

Room

1-02 & 1-03