Chest

A male researcher in the library.

We negotiate and license the software and online resource agreements you need to support academic research, teaching and learning.

Chest works on behalf of Jisc’s members and customers to negotiate discounted academic licences for commercially available software. It can be used to benefit the entire institution to support academic research, teaching and learning, as well as administrative functions.

Chest software agreements include software from Microsoft and Adobe, in specialist areas such as GIS, statistics and maths, in qualitative and quantitative data analysis, mind mapping and training, and tools for software asset management and security.

You can browse, purchase and manage your subscriptions to all the software licensed via Chest agreements through the Chest website.

“Our transition to Jisc’s Chest agreement for our Adobe educational licenses has led to a significant decrease in our costs, now amounting to just 6% of what we would have paid.“

Martha Horler, head of registry services and business intelligence, Futureworks

Benefits for institutions

We represent the interests of members and non-members by:

  • Engaging with representatives from institutions and sector bodies and international consortia to ensure that we always support research, teaching and learning
  • Negotiating the best possible price, terms, and access conditions for licensed software. In 2018/19 Chest agreements saved the academic community nearly £79m in licence fees and efficiency savings
  • Support institutions through our dedicated helpdesk providing answers to purchasing and licensing enquiries
  • Organising and supporting a range of events and communications that foster knowledge sharing between the academic community and suppliers

“Chest provides good value. Not just on pricing but on T&Cs. They are also an accepted route to market so they save on procurement effort”

Kevin Hopkins, University of Nottingham

Eligibility

This service is an optional service part of the core Jisc subscription for our HE and FE members.

The service is available to other customers including private independent universities and colleges, research organisations and charities.

Get started

Find trusted, value-for-money licences for software and online resources.

Visit chest

ISO certification

ISO/IEC 27001 logo

This service is included within the scope of our ISO27001 certificate.

Read more about International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) standards and view Jisc certificates.