Scholarly Communication
Focus Areas:
The rapid advances in the field of ICT open up a wide range of possibilities for finding, creating, distributing, and publishing research results. Not only does ICT speed up standard research and communication processes, it also changes the nature of the research cycle itself. The growing number of facilities for knowledge sharing and dissemination mean that traditional publications, tools (for example models, algorithms, and visualisations), and research data are increasingly interwoven. 
SURFfoundation’s intention with the SURFshare programme is to create a common infrastructure that will facilitate access to research information and make it possible for researchers to share scientific and scholarly information. The programme runs from 2008 to 2011 and aims to work with all the Dutch universities – both research universities and “universities of applied sciences” [hogescholen] – the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) towards optimising the sharing of research results using the latest advances in ICT.
The SURFshare programme comprises the following themes and components:
• Enhanced publications: publications enhanced with research data, tools, audio or video, reviews, and citations;
• Collaboratories: web-based research environments in which scientists and scholars based in different locations can share their sources and collaborate;
• Knowledge dissemination at Universities of Applied Sciences: improved dissemination of knowledge products generated at universities of applied sciences;
• Copyright: plays an important role in the creation and re-use of material;
• Open Access: quality and impact: opens up the way to more open access to research results and new types of quality assurance and impact measurement;
• Permanent access to data: ensures access to research data both now and in the future;
• Infrastructure: facilitates the storage and distribution of research data and publications;
o Research Information Systems: give these an integrated
place in the whole research structure;
o European knowledge infrastructure: The Netherlands as
a frontrunner for the European research structure.
SURF method
The SURFshare programme applies the tried-and-tested SURF method for innovation: success through cooperation. Everything is done with, for, and by the staff of the participating institutions. SURFshare puts out calls for tender to enable the vanguard of the Dutch higher education sector to test out innovations for sharing research results. It also involves carrying out studies, setting up pilots, and organising small-scale grassroots projects. The ultimate aim is to ensure that the working methods, tools, and project results that are developed are put to actual use in higher education.
SURFshare newsletter
We are eager to keep people in the education sector informed about our results and activities. The regular SURFshare newsletter invites the sector to contribute ideas and respond to the various developments. You can subscribe (and if necessary unsubscribe) for the SURFshare newsletter by e-mailing info@surf.nl.
More information and contact
For more information about SURFshare, please contact Marc Dupuis (programme manager), Annemiek van der Kuil, or Keith Russell (community managers) on +31 (0)30 234 6600.
You can link to this webpage with www.surffoundation.nl/en/surfshare