Welsh Repository Network Enhancement Project

Information Services at Aberystwyth University has been awarded £260k by the JISC to support the Welsh Repository Network Enhancement Project as part of their national Repositories Programme. Aberystwyth University will act as the lead partner in the newly funded scheme which will involve collaboration with all other Welsh Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the National Library of Wales.

The project will run from 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2011 and will look to build on work from previously funded programmes including the UK wide Repositories Support Project and a Welsh Repository Network Start-Up Project which have helped to establish Aberystwyth in the forefront of UK developments in this field.

The project team will investigate the potential of a collaborative, centrally managed model to accelerate the development and uptake of repository services by Welsh HEIs and will investigate the potential for a mediated deposit bureau to facilitate the increased population of newly established repositories with appropriate academic research outputs.  Another project strand will work on the creation of a Welsh Thesis Harvesting Service in collaboration with the National Library of Wales, developing an earlier pilot programme known as Repository Bridge.

The Project Director will be Bill Hines and the Project Manager will be Jackie Knowles, with the support of Hannah Payne as Project Officer and another newly appointed Technical Officer.