MDR Partners
United Kingdom
MDR Partners is making key inputs to eMapps.com in the areas of research on education policy and practice, user requirements, dissemination and network extension, monitoring and quality assurance.
MDR Partners is a project management, research and consultancy partnership specialising in the cultural and learning sectors and working widely with local, regional and national authority partners in the UK, Europe and internationally. It has more than 15 years experience of project work with the New Member States. MDR has played a key role in developing and managing the CALIMERA, PULMAN, PULMAN-XT, CULTIVATE-CEE, CULTIVATE-Russia proposals and projects under successive IST Framework programmes and in bringing together, co-ordinating and quality assuring the work of these Europe-wide professional human networks, contributing strongly to their success as co-ordination and dissemination activities Under FP5, MDR participated in SEAX-DAMAS, a Trials project, which demonstrated the impact of innovative IST-based management and access systems in local and municipal archives. Under the e-Content programme it co-ordinator of ePSIplus, the Thematic Network supporting the re-use of public sector information. It also participates in the development and application of Semantic Web Services technologies through its participation in The DIP Integrated Project (FP6).
In the United Kingdom, MDR was manager of the LearnEast project under the ESF EQUAL programme: a 2 million project involving 5 local authorities in the SouthEast of England concerning the role of public libraries in providing awareness, training and lifelong learning opportunities which have a positive impact on the employment (recruitment and retention) of disadvantaged target groups experiencing barriers, discrimination and inequality in the labour market, with a focus on the use of IST. As part of the work of its EQUAL transnational partnership, involving partners in France and Italy, MDR has also assessed by means of an international comparative study the potential for public libraries to make an impact across the continuum which links lifelong learning, social inclusion, employment skills and employment for disadvantaged groups.
MDR is a partner in seamlessUK, a project funded in the UK under the NOF digitisation programme which is developing one-stop access to local and national information for the citizen on behalf of local authorities. It has also recently carried out mapping and development projects in the archives and museums areas for a number of regions (SouthEast England, West Midlands) and local authorities (Cornwall).