News in brief

Economics teaching

The True value of sharing

The teaching materials of economics experts will be pooled as part of a project led by Nottingham Trent University. Fourteen specialist teaching and learning websites are being launched to encourage academics to share their work. The Teaching Resources for Undergraduate Economics (True) scheme is funded by £218,000 from the Higher Education Funding Council for England. It will feature Creative Commons licences to allow people to incorporate its material into their work, provided the source is acknowledged.

www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk

Research

Strong case for infrastructure pot

There is a "continuing case" for the Government to provide a discrete pot of money to help universities develop their science research infrastructure. This is the conclusion of a report by consultancy firm Technopolis, which was commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England to review the second round of the Science Research Investment Fund (SRIF), a temporary fund that ran from April 2004 to April 2006 and distributed about £1 billion to pay for new equipment and facilities to help address the infrastructure backlog. The review says the cash has generated numerous benefits, from job creation to the enhanced conversion of research into social and economic benefits. A further round of SRIF funds ran from 2006 to 2008 before the Government replaced it with the permanent but smaller Capital Investment Fund.

Times Higher Education

On the awards trail

Times Higher Education has been shortlisted for four accolades in the prestigious annual Periodical Publishers Association Awards. The publication has been nominated for the Weekly Business Magazine of the Year; its editor, Ann Mroz, is in the running for Editor of the Year (Business Media); Laurie Taylor, the creator of the University of Poppleton, is a nominee for Columnist of the Year (Business Media); and Louise Rogers, managing director of TSL Education, Times Higher Education's publisher, is up for Publisher of the Year. The results will be announced on 30 June. Meanwhile, Times Higher Education's feature "The state of the union" (3 July 2008) was a finalist in the American Association of University Professors' higher education journalism competition.

2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games

Sporting culture

A series of cultural events, known as the Creative Campus Initiative, will be hosted by a consortium of 13 universities in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The project has secured £1 million from the Higher Education Funding Council for England, match-funded by the project partners. The consortium will create a major touring exhibition, with each institution being allocated at least 10 Olympic sports to respond to in an artistic and creative way.

Correction

In last week's Times Higher Education, we erroneously reported that Cardiff University proposes to cut its lifelong learning provision in science, environment and computer studies, social sciences and modern foreign languages. In fact, Cardiff plans to reduce its lifelong learning provision in other disciplines while retaining it in the named areas. It stressed that its Lifelong Learning Centre was not at risk of closure.