Ithaka S+R, funded by the JISC-led Strategic Content Alliance (SCA), has released a new report titled 'Funding for Sustainability: How Funders' Practices Influence the Future of Digital Resources.' The report is based on interviews with representatives from more than 25 funding bodies in Europe and North America. It seeks to provide funders of digital resources and their grantees with an overview of current funding practices and highlights areas for potential improvement in defining and planning for post-grant sustainability.
According to the report, funders engage in a range of planning activities to address different aspects of sustainability, including technical, content-based, access and discovery, and audience impact requirements. But many funders only engage with their grantees at the beginning of the grant period, and all too often funders and project leaders alike rely heavily on a university or other host institution as a back-up plan for long-term sustainability.
The report offers funders and project leaders a high-level process for working together at the proposal stage to set plans for sustainability, including establishing a clear definition of sustainability for a particular project, identifying the steps needed to achieve the desired outcome at different stages of the project, and establishing metrics for measuring the project's ongoing impact.
The report, written by Nancy L. Maron and Matthew Loy, is available online at
www.ithaka.org/ithaka-s-r/research/funding-for-sustainability.
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