June started with the pitch event for the Spring 2016 challenge.

The panel was impressed by the ideas and presentations, and offered funding to five projects, four of which have now signed the official award agreement (the fifth project has accepted but the actual paperwork has not yet been completed):

• Diversifying the University Voice – researcher/student mobile trails. Based at TORCH in collaboration with the Pitt Rivers Museum
• Effective Computing for Research Reproducibility. Based at the Department of Anthropology
• Methodicate – reproducible data science. Based at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
• Multisensory Access – bringing visual art to life through touch and sound. Based at Oxford University Museums

Once the agreements were signed, accounts are set up and the funds are transferred to the lead department to administer.

June has been a busy month not only for setting up the new projects but also for getting the students projects, funded in the autumn round, ready to run, if they have not already started. As these projects are administered through IT Services and not through the project manager’s department, Innovation staff are involved in helping the projects draw up contracts and make purchases, as well as the important task of making sure project staff can get paid for their work. It is always interesting to see how different people approach their projects, and it is rewarding and stimulating to follow their progress.

On June 25, Innovation staff gave a presentation at the annual conference for IT Support Staff, introducing the IT Innovation scheme and general experiences of running the scheme, in addition to high-lighting some of the past and current projects. Interest was good, and we hope to see some interesting new projects appearing, supported by the talented IT support staff across the University.