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From:
http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/po/oii/

Friday 4 May 2001

e-Research: a First for Oxford

[See also www.admin.ox.ac.uk/po/oii/ for further information and
video clips]

Oxford University is creating the world's first truly
multidisciplinary Internet Institute based in a major university. The
Oxford Internet Institute (OII), with initial funding of £15 million,
will carry out research and make policy recommendations about the
effects on society of the Internet with the goal of putting Oxford,
the UK and Europe at the centre of debates about how the Internet
could and should develop.

The Oxford Internet Institute has been made possible by a major
donation from The Shirley Foundation of £10 million (partly to the
University, of which the Institute will be a department within the
Social Sciences Division, and partly to Balliol College, where it
will be located) together with public funding totalling £5 million
from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), which
is supported by the Department for Education and Employment.

The creation of the OII has been warmly welcomed by the Secretary of
State for Education, David Blunkett, the European Commissioner for
the Information Society, Erkki Liikanen, and the Cabinet Office e-
envoy, Andrew Pinder, as well as by Derek Wyatt MP, an early
proponent of the concept. "I congratulate Oxford University on
establishing this innovative Institute," says David Blunkett. "The
effects of the Internet are pervasive - through business, education
and leisure. Britain needs a centre for top-class research on the
difficult issues the Internet poses in cryptography, intellectual
property rights, security and so on. In bringing together research
across the country, I hope the Institute will become a world leader."


The Vice-Chancellor, Colin Lucas, comments; "This is an area with
huge commercial interests and there is a need for a voice that is
independent, underpinned by first class research and recognised world-
wide for its integrity. Oxford is well placed to provide this and the
generous funding from The Shirley Foundation and the further support
from HEFCE are an ideal beginning. Moreover, the enthusiasm for this
project is so great that the planning, the fundraising and finding of
a building have all been completed in a matter of months."


Andrew Graham, Master-Elect of Balliol, who has been heading the
group working on this initiative adds: "You can already shop, bank,
vote, debate, argue, consult a doctor and get your degree over the
Net - and do so all around the globe. However, there is also an
enormous amount of rubbish out there and some material that is
harmful. To understand what is happening and to formulate helpful
policies you need people such as political scientists, lawyers,
medics, economists and computing scientists working together.
Building on the substantial strengths already in Oxford, this is what
the OII will do. It is a great opportunity for the University and for
Balliol."

Dame Stephanie Shirley, founder of The Shirley Foundation, says: "For
some time now I have been very interested in the social, ethical and
other issues raised by the Internet. These are global concerns and I
am delighted that my funding has provided the Oxford Internet
Institute with the firm foundation required to attract public, and in
due course further private, financial backing. I am confident that
the Institute will enable Britain to play a leading and authoritative
role in this important area."

The Institute will attract the best people in the world both through
permanent appointments and by offering senior visiting appointments
(filled after open competition) for research staff seconded to
Oxford. It will also act as a focus in Oxford for doctoral students
and postdoctoral staff working in this area. "The attraction of this
project", explains HEFCE's Chief Executive, Sir Brian Fender, "is the
opportunity it presents for a world-leading collaboration which can
foster a genuine UK Internet academic community, equipped to
anticipate and facilitate rapid response to topical issues of public
concern."

The Oxford Internet Institute will raise further funds to support
plans for expansion of its activities.

For more information contact: University of Oxford Press Office 01865
280528

Notes to editors:

More information about the Oxford Internet Institute - including
interviews with those involved in the project - can be found at
www.admin.ox.ac.uk/po/oii/ .

Topics the Institute might investigate include:

     global law enforcement
     governance and regulation
     privacy and security
     confidentiality and trust
     the boundaries of the nation state (including the implications
for taxation)
     participation in the information society
     e-Government and the delivery of public services
     e-democracy
     Internet-enabled healthcare
     innovation and knowledge creation
     effects on education (especially higher education)
     the digital divide
     problems and prospects for e-money
     impact on music and the creative arts
     community building and development
     defence and counter-terrorism.

Within Oxford, there are already significant research programmes
relating to the Internet and its impact. These include:

the Saïd Business School's ESRC-funded national research programme
"Virtual Society?", led by Professor Steve Woolgar (which considers
whether fundamental shifts are taking place in the ways people
behave, organise themselves and interact as a result of new
technologies)

interdisciplinary research on intellectual property and information
technology conducted at the Oxford Intellectual Property Research
Centre at St Peter's College

the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (considering the
consequences of globalisation and digitalisation on governance,
policy and law - often with an interdisciplinary base, co-operating
with other academic areas including politics, economics and
management)

the Oxford-Intel Initiative supported by St Catherine's College and
the University's Department of Educational Studies (a collaboration
with one of the world's leading microprocessor manufacturers to
produce new types of educational software)

work on Internet-enabled health care at the Institute of Health
Sciences

developments within the Department of Continuing Education (where the
Technology Assisted Lifelong Learning programme investigates and
develops new ways of using technology to support lifelong learning
and where the delivery of graduate level degrees as well as short
courses is being developed in association with many other parts of
the University)

the Department of Chemistry which is running a massive "distributed
screen saver" project in which people all over the world share the
unused power on their computers to screen molecules for cancer
fighting potential. In the first three weeks of its existence 250,000
people have signed up for what could be the world's biggest Internet
computational project.

under the Humanities Board and the major library, museum and
publishing resources of the University, there are many Internet
projects. These include work at the Ruskin School on creative art on
the Internet as well as the electronic storage and retrieval of
images of ancient manuscripts and artefacts

The University of Oxford is also the UK partner, with Stanford,
Princeton and Yale Universities, in a joint "distance learning"
venture which will provide on line courses in the arts and sciences
initially to their combined 500,000 alumni. The non-profit University
Alliance for Life-Long Learning will offer non-credit courses, taking
advantage of emerging technologies to give the alumni and others
convenient access to their Universities' extraordinary resources. The
Alliance will provide an innovative educational service that is
likely to include on line courses and interactive seminars;
multimedia programmes; topical Web sites that include links to
research information; live and taped coverage of campus speakers,
exhibitions, and other events; and lectures on tape. The member
universities will control the content of the courses and other
educational services offered, ensuring that they meet the highest
standards.

The Shirley Foundation was established in 1996 by "Steve" (now Dame
Stephanie) Shirley, who endowed it with a substantial trust fund. The
fund is used to support a wide range of projects, primarily in the
fields of autism and IT. The Foundation has achieved national
recognition for the importance and impact of its funding. Its mission
is to support pioneering projects with the potential to have a
strategic impact, especially those that could push out the boundaries
of knowledge, understanding and good practice. It has so far
dispensed over £25m, of which £15m has gone to establishing Prior's
Court School for children with autism and £5m to The Worshipful
Company of Information Technologists to provide it with its own base
and the resources to initiate a variety of charitable activities.

The Oxford Internet Institute will be headed by a Director, who will
also hold a Professorial Chair at the University. The post will be
filled through an open selection process and it is hoped that an
appointment will be made this summer. An Advisory Board will be
appointed to enable the Institute to draw on expertise from a range
of sources within and outside Oxford.

The Oxford Internet Institute will be based at 1 St. Giles - part of
Balliol College.

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