UEL has teamed up with Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) to gather and share the opinions of residents in the five host Olympic and Paralympic boroughs of Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.

The material for the project, entitled East London Lives 2012, will form a public library alongside a searchable online archive of filmed focus groups which will provide a resource for teaching, learning, research and policy makers.

Director of the London East Research Institute, Dr Iain MacRury said: “This exciting archive will help capture the narratives of local people and the impacts on community development and health for future generations and everyone’s experience counts.

“East London Lives 2012 will also become a valuable resource to support learning, teaching and research at UEL and East London generally, with our new Olympic Studies module, as well as throughout academia, nationally and internationally.”

Digitisation Programme Officer at JISC, Ben Showers, said: “This significant resource is one of 25 innovative digitisation projects in JISC's enriching digital resources programme aimed at enhancing teaching and research within UK Higher Education.

“It records a precious slice of history through the creation of an unparalleled, time-specific resource and captures the changes to the lives of Londoners to 2012 and beyond.”

To find out more information on the East London Lives 2012 project click here.