Projects Archive

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Websites and summaries of projects which have been completed are archived in their final state.

Listed in reverse date order, by the end date of the project. (View the list sorted alphabetically.)

A Sense of Place (National) Digitisation Project – was an umbrella theme covering separate, still ongoing projects: Collect Britain, and A Vision of Britain through Time, created by the Great Britain Historical GIS (GBHGIS) project.
Usability Service Enhancements to Digimap (USeD), March 2011 - February 2012: This JISC-funded project is looking at ways of improving the Digimap Data Download facility.
Geospatial Engagement and Community Outreach (GECO), February 2011 – February 2012 The overarching purpose of GECO is to foster a community(ies) of users of geospatial resources (data, services, support). Geospatial, taken in its broadest sense underpins a vast array of academic endeavour - geography represents a fundamental organising axis for information.
Digital Monograph Technical Landscape Study, February – December 2011: A landscape study looking at the issues surrounding the adoption of e-book reader technology to assist with the publishing of scholarly literature, in particular monographs.
Spatio-Temporal Energy Efficiency Visualisation (STEEV), February 2011 – November 2011: This project will build a stakeholder engagement tool visualising historic, current and future energy efficiency estimates at the level of individual buildings.
Interoperable Geographic Information for Biosphere Study, April to October 2011:
The IGIBS project is building on prior work demonstrating how Shibboleth (the open source software that underpins the UK Access Management Federation) can be used to provide an organisational model for Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI).
Research Data MANTRA, September 2010 - August 2011: Research Data MANTRA aims to develop online learning materials which reflect best practice in research data management grounded in three disciplinary contexts: social science, clinical psychology, and geoscience.
UK Discovery Projects, Feb – July 2011: Explored the use of open linked data for GoGeo and SUNCAT.5
JORUM, 2002 – 2011. The Jorum project created a robust technical and policy infrastructure for the UK’s national repository for learning and teaching resources. It was developed jointly by the EDINA and Mimas National Data Centres, and provided access to over 14000 learning and teaching resources. It was taken forward into service by Mimas from August 2011.
Connecting Historical Authorities with Linked data, Contexts and Entities (CHALICE), June 2010 – 30 April 2011: The project will generate a gazetteer of historic UK placenames, linked to documents and authority files in Linked Data form.
Open Access Repository Junction, August 2009 – March 2011: A project is to assist open access deposit into, and interoperability between, existing repository services, by developing a deposit broker system.
European Spatial Data Infrastructure with a Best Practice Network (ESDIN), September 2008 – March 2011: ESDIN was established by the European Commission to develop a Best Practice Network and to evaluate the theory of integrating national Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs).
Web Services Tiered Internet Authorisation (WSTIERIA), January 2010 – March 2011: Aims to enable interoperation of web services with the by taking two current developments (Internet2 in extending Shibboleth and EDINA in developing non-browser access to federated web services) and applying them to one or more real use cases.
ShareGeo Open, ended 2010: ShareGeo Open is a spatial data repository that promotes data sharing between creators and users of spatial data, developed to ensure continuity of access to data for the UK academic and education sector.
AddressingHistory Phase 1, April – September 2010: The project created an online tool to combine data from digitised historical Scottish Post Office Directories with contemporaneous historical maps.
Walking Through Time 2, April – September 2010. Walking Through Time (first phase) was a simple idea: "SatNav for historical maps"; a phone app that combines GPS technology with old maps to allow users to 'walk through time'. WTT2 extended the second phase of the Walking Through Time project and concentrated upon developing a sustainable platform to allow for the roll-out the application across Britain via the most popular smart phone platform.
Scoping Study: Aggregations of Metadata for Images and Time Based Media, June – September 2010. This project fed into the Resource Discovery Programme, established by JISC and RLUK, in understanding the issues, barriers and opportunities that established an aggregation of metadata describing images and time based media.
Supporting Personalisation across the JISC Information Environment, February 2009 – 2010. Created two rapid demonstrators for Location-based searching for JISC IE services; and a Shared middleware service of service-content references.
Digimap - Alternative Access Scoping Study – Mobile, 2009 – 2010: A scoping project which investigated the potential and the demand for mobile GIS in Higher and Further education and research.
JISC Programme and Document Repository Business Process and Repository Metadata Definition, April – July 2010: Curtis+Cartwright Consulting Ltd were leading this joint work with EDINA to provide consultancy to JISC to develop candidate business processes and metadata schema for a new JISC repository. The overall aim was to enable JISC to make as much of its project and service outputs as publicly available as possible, all accessible through a single (central) repository. During this short definition project Curtis+Cartwright led the definition of the business processes and EDINA led the definition of the repository metadata schema and documenting user requirements arising from a series of workshops.
EM-Loader, March 2008 – 2010. EM-Loader demonstrated middleware that enabled easier deposit of research papers through batch upload of extant bibliographic metadata.
Geospatial Application Profile (GAP), April 2008 – 2010. A Geospatial Application Profile (GAP) was developed analogous to the ePrints (SWAP) Profile for the purposes of describing geospatial resources held in repositories to assist in their discovery and reuse.
VSM Portal, 2008 – 2010: a scoping study and demonstrator project to build a demonstrator portal for time-based media and still images - including those licensed for the JISC community, those available 'free' on the internet, and those generated within the academic and publicly-funded community.
GetRef, 2007 – 2010: GetRef is an application for cross-searching A&I databases that was developed as a result of the Xgrain project.
PECAN - Pilot for Ensuring Continuity of Access via NESLi2 - Phase 1, August – November 2009: PECAN Phase 1 was a JISC-funded project to investigate how best to support libraries and their patrons through access to e-journal content post-cancellation.
Walking Through Time, June – October 2009: Walking Through Time works on improving the delivery, sharing and use of JISC mapping resources by learners, teachers and researchers, via a new lightweight web service that provides historical map data to a smart phone.
DIaD, 2008 – 2009: DIaD is investigating the potential of using open-standard techniques to perform data linkage between two of the most heavily used census outputs - the aggregate statistical data and the output geographies.
Discovery to Delivery at EDINA and Mimas, 2008 – 2009: Discovery to Delivery at EDINA and Mimas was a collaborative project to enable users to discover resources on the existing Copac and SUNCAT services.
GeoDigRef, 2008 – 2009: GeoDigRef is a short project investigating the advantages of metadata enrichment across three diverse resource collections funded under the JISC Digitisation programme.
Shared OpenURL Data Infrastructure Investigation, 2008 – 2009: Scoping a UK architecture for the analysis of OpenURL linking data.
COMPASS, 2007 – 2009: The Coastal Marine Perception Application for Scientific Scholarship (COMPASS) is investigating the development of semantic tools for assisting those conducting research into coastal marine environments.
DISC-UK DataShare, 2007 – 2009: DISC-UK members worked closely with staff involved with IR management and development at their own institutions to pilot successful models for incorporating deposit of research data into institutional repositories.
HILT 2007 – 2009: HILT aims to ensure that FE and HE users of the JISC Information Environment can find appropriate learning, research and information resources by subject search and browse in a distributed services environment where most service providers use different subject schemes to describe their resources, the details of which are largely unknown to most users.
EuroGeoNames, 2006 – 2009: EGN implemented an interoperable internet service that linked and provided access to the official, multilingual geographical names data held nationally across Europe.
GRADE, 2006 – 2009: GRADE was the Geospatial Repository for Academic Deposit and Extraction. The project investigated and reported on the technical and cultural issues around the reuse of geospatial data within the JISC IE in the context of media-centric, informal and institutional repositories. GRADE has since been incorporated into the Digimap service.
the Depot, 2006 – 2009: The Depot is a supporting service of the JISC Repositories and Preservation programme for the deposit of peer-reviewed research papers, articles, and book chapters (e-prints).
Low Cost OpenURL Resolver, February – September 2008 : An invited proposal to review the requirement and means of delivering a low-cost ‘appropriate copy’ OpenURL resolver service which would provide means for staff and students at all UK universities and colleges to locate the ‘appropriate copy’ for a given bibliographic reference.
GeoCrossWalk, 2007 – 2008: GeoCrossWalk was a JISC funded project that developed a middleware Gazetteer server (machine2machine) and a demonstrator Gazetteer service (human2machine).
Review of OpenID, 2007 – 2008: An investigation of OpenID and its applicability within UK academia.
SEE-GEO (SEcurE access to GEOspatial services), 2006 – 2008: SEE-GEO sought to demonstrate the use of Shibboleth to securely access Geospatial web services using open interoperability standards running on the National Grid Service.
ShareGeo, 2006 – 2008: ShareGeo was a project to integrate a geospatial data repository into the Digimap Collections suite of services, building on the work done in the GRADE (Geospatial Repository for Academic Deposit and Extraction) project which developed a demonstrator repository built using DSpace. ShareGeo is now available from within the Digimap service.
Go-Geo!, 2001 – 2008: The Go-Geo! project developed an online resource discovery tool which allows for the identification and retrieval of records describing the content, quality, condition and other characteristics of geospatial data that exist with UK tertiary education and beyond. It is now available as an EDINA service: Go-Geo!
GEESE, 2006 – 2007: Grid Enabling EDINA Services (GEESE) aimed to take a significant step towards making EDINA national datacentre data securely available on the UK’s National Grid Service for use by the UK academic sector.
OS MasterMap, 2006 – 2007 : The roll out of OS MasterMap Topographic, the replacement for Ordnance Survey Land-Line. The project developed a delivery mechanism within Digimap for OS MasterMap Topographic and Integrated Transport Network (ITN) layers.
MOTIIVE, 2005 – 2007 : A multi-partner European funded project examining the use of open geospatial interoperability standards to achieve data harmonisation in the marine/coastal thematic area. It was closely associated with the EC INSPIRE directive (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe). EDINA's central involvement was in putting up a deployment framework demonstrating the use of the approach advocated by the project.
Shibboleth Development and Support Services, 2004 – 2007: JISC made a substantial commitment to adopt Shibboleth technology as the principal framework for authentication and authorisation within the JISC Information Environment. In support of this, EDINA led a group of partners within the University of Edinburgh to advance this work under the Shibboleth Development and Support Services project (SDSS).
e-MapScholar Virtual Placement – Nant Carfan Visualisation Case Study, ended 2007: The e-MapScholar Virtual Placements provided real-life problems that could be addressed using geo-information. In this case, a real proposal for a wind farm in Powys, Wales, drew on documents produced in the planning stages to develop work related skills such as data handling, problem solving, time management and effective communication and presentation of information.
GASHE, 2004 – 2006: The Gateway to Archives of Scottish Higher Education, led by the University of Glasgow, provided electronic access to descriptions of historical records of ten higher education institutions in Scotland.
SUNCAT, 2003 – 2006: This was a JISC-funded project to set up and host a Serials Union Catalogue for the UK. SUNCAT is both a way to locate serials and a central source of high-quality records that can be used by university and college libraries to upgrade their local records. On 1 August 2006 SUNCAT became a full EDINA service.
Prospero, ended 2006: This project carried out scoping activity for a JISC-funded open access repository of research papers to support UK researchers and academic institutions without current access to an institutional repository. This project eventually turned into the Depot service (see above under Learning and Teaching).
Interoperability Project, 2004 – 2005 : A six-month JISC funded project undertaken by EDINA, MIMAS, the Centre for Computational Geography at Leeds, the Department of Geomatics at UCL and involving the NERC Data Grid, to demonstrate how web services may best be used to deliver geospatial data to the academic community.
OpenURL Router, 2003 – 2005: The OpenURL Router project developed a service to link different bibliographic services, typically between an abstracting and indexing database (a referrer) and services (resolvers) which locate copies relating to the reference that a user has found in his search. The OpenURL Router project was an offshoot of the ZBALSA project.
Jorum, 2002 – 2005 : The Jorum project provided a practical 'test-bed' investigation into a digital repository for learning and teaching materials for UK Further and Higher Education. Jorum is now a joint service run by EDINA and Mimas. Project work continues as part of Service-in-Development in many areas.
E-BioSci, 2001 – 2005: a European platform for access and retrieval of full text and factual information in the life sciences. EDINA was a partner in E-BioSci in association with BIOME, part of the Resource Discovery Network. A UK node of the E-BioSci prototype was produced. A further developmental version of the UK node was produced that explored presentation of additional UK specific resources; performance considerations were not addressed in this version.
Xgrain, 2000 – 2004: The initial project to develop an application for cross-searching A&I databases that developed into the GetRef service.
IPTC, ended 2004 : A scoping study, funded by the JISC, to consider the development of Institutional Profiling and Terms and Conditions services.
TIES II, ended 2004 : Building on the work of the TIES I project funded by JISC, TIES II considered the feasibility of creating a national service for the issue of digital certificates to staff and students in H&FE.
e-MapScholar, 2001 – 2003: a major L&T project in two phases which developed tools and learning and teaching materials to enhance and support the use of geo-spatial data, including digital map data available from the EDINA Digimap service.
NLN (the National Learning Network), 2001 – 2003 : Online learning materials for use in Virtual Learning Environments were made available for download.
TRILT, 2001 – 2003: TRILT offered a comprehensive, detailed, searchable online index of UK TV and radio channels. The TRILT project came to a successful conclusion on 31 August 2003, and TRILT is now available as a service from the BUFVC.
ZBLSA, 2001 – 2003: located services providing full text of a journal article given a 'bibliographic' reference discovered elsewhere, e.g. in an A&I Database or as a citation in a journal article. This project developed into the OpenURL Router project.
Angel, 2000 – 2003: JISC funded the ANGEL Consortium to develop tools to integrate learning environments with digital library developments. The role of EDINA within the project was to permit access to its databases and data services for trial purposes. It also provided consultancy to the project, both strategic and technical.
NAHSTE, 2000 – 2003: Navigational Aids for the History of Science, Technology and the Environment to make accessible on the world wide web a variety of outstanding collections of archives and manuscripts held by the three partner Higher Education Institutions (University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University, and Glasgow University).
TIES I, ended 2003 : In partnership with the Edinburgh University Computing Services, TIES I (Technologies for Information Environment Security) implemented a pilot Public Key Infrastructure for H&FE.
Digimap in FE, 2001 – 2002: This project examined the extension of the Digimap service from HEIs only, to the FE sector.
OS Mastermap Scoping Study, 2001 – 2002: The adoption of an object based, seamless topographical database by the Ordnance Survey (GB) in its new MasterMap product poses a range of technical challenges for service delivery.
UK Serials Union Catalogue (SUNCAT) Scoping Study, ended 2002 (PDF document) : A study commissioned by JISC, RSLP (Research Support Libraries Programme), and the British Library, EDINA's role was to contribute to the study on specific technical aspects and to ensure that the SUNCAT, as scoped, would be consistent with other developments in the JISC Information Environment (IE).
SAD I, 2000 – 2001: A subject-based approach to the DNER: portal development 1, based within the Resource Discovery Network (RDN). EDINA worked with EEVL to produce a prototype engineering portal during phase I only.
Using Numeric Datasets in Teaching and Learning, 2000 – 2001: Examining barriers to use, successful examples, and models of local support.
Statistical Accounts of Scotland, 1999 – 2001: Digitising the 1790 and 1830 statistical reports on the parishes of Scotland. This is now an EDINA national service.
Cooperative Archive of Serials and Articles (CASA), 1996 – 2000: Made better information about journals and other periodicals available to users and information professionals worldwide.
Digimap Project, 1996 – 1999: Made Ordnance Survey digital map data available on the Internet. (For the current national service, see EDINA Digimap .)
British Survey of Fertiliser Practice, 1993 – 1998: EDINA designed and conducted the survey for DEFRA.
Remote Referencing Project, 1996 – 1998: Used video-conferencing technology to enable users working at home to have access to their reference librarians.
Scottish Datasets Initiative, 1996 – 1998: Made Scottish research data more accessible to researchers.
RAPID (Research Activity and Publications Information Database), 1990 – 1997: Established as the first on-line system in the UK linking descriptions of research activity with outputs, from ESRC-funded projects. It was succeeded by the REGARD service run by the ILRT at the University of Bristol. For further information, download P M Burnhill and M E Tubby-Hille (1994). "On measuring the relation between social science research activity and research publication," Research Evaluation 4(3), 130-152. (1.9mb pdf file download – scanned version of annotated typescript)
Special Collections Index of Manuscripts, 1995 – 1996: (SCIMSS) Increasing awareness and effective use of the manuscripts held by Edinburgh University Library's Special Collections.
QUANGO Watch, ended 1995: Survey of non-elected public bodies in Scotland – a research project conducted by the Unit for the Study of Government in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh (now Institute of Governance) and COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities).
Scottish Migration and Housing Choice Survey, ended 1990: Examined the reasons why people move house in Scotland.

EDINA is the Jisc-designated national data centre at the University of Edinburgh.