Excellent research requires excellent equipment. As part of the objective area, “Sharing Resources” the Berlin University Alliance (BUA) asks researchers in the alliance for their assessments of the shared use of research infrastructures and open science tools. Because joint research and teaching also involves sharing resources – and thus using them more efficiently. The participation survey under the title “mitdenken” (“Share your ideas”) aims at shaping these topics according to needs.

The excellence alliance consisting of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin has, among other things, set itself the task of developing shared research infrastructures and making existing infrastructures accessible to all members. Infrastructure does not only include large-scale equipment and technical facilities. Collections, libraries and archives, information and communication platforms, and systems for open access and research data management are also important research infrastructures.

Participate and follow the decision-making process

One of the questions on the participation platform is, for example, how participants envision shared research infrastructures in Berlin, whether they consider the shared use to be desirable or whether they are willing to share their own research infrastructure. “We are looking for new needs and ideas for shared resources,” says physicist Prof. Dr. Stephanie Reich of Freie Universität Berlin and spokesperson for the Steering Committee for Sharing Resources. “If we succeed in making our scientific infrastructure widely usable, Berlin will become a much more interesting research hub.”

The participation survey will be conducted in English and will start step by step in the Excellence Alliance. Initially, researchers at Freie Universität Berlin and Technische Universität Berlin will be asked to participate. At Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Charité, the survey will start at a later date. Researchers can participate on the online platform, communicate their needs, wishes, and ideas for a common infrastructure, and follow the decision-making process. The responses will be evaluated with speech algorithms and clustered by topic. After this preliminary evaluation, the findings will be summarized, and action and project proposals will be developed from them. Those who leave their contact details in the survey will be contacted at the end and informed about how their own answers have been included in the cumulative evaluation.

The Berlin University Alliance

The Berlin University Alliance is a consortium consisting of three major Berlin universities – Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin – and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, established to shape research and education in Berlin. The four partners joined forces to further develop Berlin as a research hub with international drawing power. Together the partners explore major societal challenges, increase public outreach, promote the training of junior researchers, address issues of quality and standards in research, and share resources in the areas of research infrastructure, teaching, diversity, equal opportunities, and internationalization. The Berlin University Alliance is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the state of Berlin under the Excellence Strategy of the Federal Government and the Länder.

Joint press release from Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin along with Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Press contact
Hans-Christoph Keller, acting press spokesperson for the Berlin University Alliance and press spokesperson for Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Email: medien@berlin-university-alliance.de