Working with the grain of academics own interest in research, the TELRI Project – led by the University of Warwick in partnership with Oxford University during 1998-2001 - identified successful ways to bring academics into the educational development arena. TELRI worked successfully with academic staff to identify research-orientated approaches to learning that develop students' higher order cognitive capabilities and to support these using ICT in courses across a range of discipline areas.

The TELRI team found that academics are generally keen to embrace reflective practice to enrich their teaching approaches and are receptive to new ideas. The approaches advocated by TELRI were almost universally applauded by the academics to which they presented and to whom they were often seen as merely a clarification of principles long epoused but not necessarily implemented. The demand for TELRI is evidenced in the number of institutions or departments who requested packs in bulk to "spread the word", invited the project to present a seminar or workshop or to discuss approaches with senior staff. It has not been possible to support such interest beyond the consultancy days given in the current project. Furthermore, a number of LTSN Centres are keen to present to their discipline communities the TELRI ideas and ICT approaches. We have some dissemination events booked after the project finish date, not wishing to turn down interest. The experience of TELRI is that the difficulties in institutional embedding are due to social, cultural and organisational factors rather than any lack of individual motivation to explore new methods or technical limitations. Identifying such factors and exploring possible solutions forms the basis of this further work with a view to transferring successful approaches in TELRI to other institutions. The solutions may be different for each institution but their discovery and evaluation do constitute the greatest need.

It is well recognised that project-assisted implementation need to be sustainable and that, as a whole, project innovation should bring about improvements in institutional practice and inform national policy. Institutions vary immensely in their structures and working practices and have a substantial effect on the likelihood of innovations being taken up elsewhere. A fruitful area to explore in terms of transferability, therefore, is the institutional context within which projects seek to integrate teaching development into core academic business.

The depth of analysis required of such operational environments is generally beyond the scope of individual funded projects. The HEFCE has therefore agreed additional funding for the TELRI Project to undertake a formal, targeted and evidenced approach to transferring new teaching and learning approaches at the institutional level and facilitating the process of embedding innovation from educational development work.