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EDINA Annual Review 2008/2009In 2008-2009, the cross-service group identified members of staff who were “networkers” and required mobiledevices to enable them to do their jobs more efficiently; staff members who went out occasionally, and wouldrequired a pool of devices to support them; and software engineers who required equipment to supportdevelopment and testing. A contract was taken out with O2 to provide mobile phones and broadband modems,while investment was also made in a number of netbooks and laptops.The growth in popularity of Web 2.0 social media and collaboration tools is also important for the support oflearning and research activity. Work in this area during 2008-2009 is detailed in the section above.Work done by EDINA in 2008-2009 on personalisation projects was described on page 10.Gain leverage from inter-working, in UK and internationallyEDINA works at local, national and international levels in each of its strategic business areas (SBAs), engaging ininitiatives that assist productivity in research, learning and teaching. It plans to further develop its links withimportant national and international groups, including governmental, educational, standards development,research data, commercial, web services and grid development organisations. Some of the JISC’s key strategictargets are expressed in contacts between EDINA and these organisations, and achieved in the joint workundertaken, for example, international collaboration to develop the E-Framework for Education and Research(see below). In addition, Research Council and EU activities in which EDINA is engaged give a focus tocollaboration and synergy. Its national and international contacts are also important for the University ofEdinburgh’s strategic aims as a world-class University seeking to enhance its global presence.Engagement on the European stage has special strategic significance for EDINA, JISC and the UK educationalcommunity. In addition, EDINA continues to value work with colleagues in North America and is laying thegroundwork for working with the emergent China through links with the Library of the Academy of Sciences.Geospatial activitySome of EDINA’s geospatial activities are world-class and especially important as the scientific communityprepares to implement the EU INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe) Directive. This hasled to productive partnerships between EDINA and European organisations in the academic, commercial andgovernmental sectors seeking to implement the directive. For example, the Geo-services team has secured asubstantial role within the EU e-ContentPlus funded European Spatial Data Infrastructure Network (ESDIN)project. This project gives EDINA added means to ensure academic sector interests are represented as theEuropean SDI is rolled out using the mechanism of the INSPIRE Directive. ESDIN also provides the meansfor EDINA to engage with national mapping agencies within Europe, and also with global initiatives such asGlobalMap. The team has also been working with Eurogeographics and the Association of GeographicInformation Laboratories for Europe (AGILE) to reveal the state of play within each European member stateregarding higher education access to national mapping agency data.The academic European persistent geospatial testbed being developed by the Association of GeographicInformation Laboratories Europe (AGILE) and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), EuroSDR (effectivelythe research arm of the National Mapping and Charting Agencies represented at a European level), will continueto be a focus of activity for EDINA, with EDINA having specific involvement in aspects of the testbed relatingto service security.e-Framework activitiesThe e-Framework for Education and Research was initially established by JISC and Australia’s Department ofEducation, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), formerly the Department of Education, Scienceand Training (DEST). The New Zealand Ministry of Education (NZMoE) and the Netherlands SURFFoundation (SURF) joined in 2007. EDINA is participating in a number of e-Framework activities and has beeninvited by JISC to undertake an interoperability project with New Zealand, which will include the mapping ofgeospatial standards to the E-Framework for Education and Research.17