Starting this autumn, researchers will have access to a special research portal on the UB website. The portal will collect information about research applications, training sessions, open science, and ethics.
The UG wants to spend the next few years focusing on scouting and developing research talent. For this, they’ll need support. While this support, in the form of training sessions and information, already exists, it’s fragmented and difficult to find.
The new portal will quickly and efficiently direct researchers to the correct expert or support service they need. The university is also working on finding out which services are being offered redundantly or where they are missing.
Properly maintained
The university council’s research and education committee thinks the plan is a good idea. But Dinie Bouwman with the personnel section did say it’s important the site is properly maintained. ‘Right now, it’s part of the ongoing tasks of the current staff’, she said. ‘What procedures have been put in place to ensure the portal is maintained?’
Rector magnificus Cisca Wijmenga said there was no need to worry. ‘Maintaining the portal will become standard practice’, she says. She also thinks there will be enough time for this, ‘since the people responsible won’t have to waste time sending people emails all the time’.
If the site isn’t finished yet in the autumn, it will still go live with the information it has then. The UG’s board of directors has made 100,000 euros available for creating the portal.