Website Sustainability

overview The RDInfo Project is aimed at transitioning the world-class RDInfo knowledgebase from a vulnerable Department of Health (DH), National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) grant supported position into a sustainable institutionally supported model. This involves transfer of the current web platform into the Leeds Information Systems Services (ISS) infrastructure from a private host site and the creation of a sustainable subscription based service. The business model is based on the assumption that access to the service if fully funded through partners can be made free to . ac.uk  (University of Leeds funded) and . nhs.uk  (DH/NIHR funded) registered users but on a paid subscription basis for other users and institutions both National and International. The JISC funding is being sought to provide for the technical transition and will form part of a portfolio of funding from major sponsors including the University of Leeds (UoL), DH, Association of Medical Research C...

The area of sustainability of websites should be an important consideration for any funding that involves public money, both during the life-time of the project and after it. Especially when government funded agencies are being rationalised finding ways to keep the sites going even if they are not updated further, they still provide a ‘snap-shot’ of the resources at a particular point in time. This project looked at possible sustainability options and has the following recommendations: ·          A sustainable web solution should be considered for funded projects. There are a number of free options. ·          Google Sites is an appropriate solution if the number of pages is small, the formatting of the pages is not too complicated and it is a new web site. ·          Amazon is appropriate for both new and previously developed material is being migrated. ...