Happy New Year! We hope that you had a restful break and a good start of the year! At the University of Aruba Research Center (UARC) we are busy planning for the upcoming year. We have new dates for the Research Writing Sprints and exciting seminars/workshops in the planning, as well as conferences taking place in January, May and November at the University of Aruba (UA, see below for some more information!). The first workshop organized this year by the Research Center will focus on Thesis Supervision on 15 January. We are also working on updating the research outputs on the Open Knowledge Repository (we are close to 1500 outputs!), and making sure the outputs are correctly reported in the UA’s Annual Report of 2025!

UA Staff: Annual Outputs 2025

With the start of the new year we start with the collection of all the research outputs from UA staff from 2025 for the 2025 Annual Report!

UA staff will need to upload all their research outputs to the Open Knowledge Repository by 2 February! If you're not sure whether your research output can be uploaded to the Repository, you can always ask us or check the University of Aruba Open Knowledge Repository - Output Collection Policy for an overview of the type of research related outputs that we collect on the Repository.

To help you with checking and adding your research outputs, the Research Center planned three sessions at the Research Center (MC building):

• Monday 19 January 1-2 PM

• Tuesday 20 January 9-10 AM

• Thursday 22 January 2-3 PM

You can also always send an email or hop by if you can't attend these sessions!

UARC Workshop: Supervising

Struggling with how you can be a good thesis supervisor? Sign up for the first workshop in 2026 on how to improve your supervision skills.

When: TODAY: 15 January (1 - 2:30 PM)
Where: University of Aruba, MC Room 7

PhD lunch

The next PhD lunch is planned for 2 February, from 12-1 PM at the University of Aruba! This bring-your-own-lunch event is open to anyone on Aruba interested in or pursuing a PhD! Reach out to research@ua.aw if you would like a calendar invite!

Conference at the UA: Cartography and Sustainable Development Workshop

The University of Aruba is proud to host the The First Cartography and Sustainable Development Workshop in Aruba!

From 26-28 January 2026 cartographers, sustainability experts, and islanders are welcome to enter an open dialog about Sustainable Development and cartography, and to identify tangible solutions to Sustainable Development, through the use of maps.

UA staff and students can still sign up to join; see the website for more information!

Conference at the UA: Shaping Rights Across Oceans

Shaping Rights Across Oceans: The ECHR’s Impact in the Caribbean will be held on 29 May 2026 at the University of Aruba! Abstract submission is still open!

This one-day academic conference explores how the European Convention on Human Rights shapes, influences, and interacts with legal systems, governance structures, and lived realities in Caribbean territories. We welcome interdisciplinary perspectives from scholars, practitioners, and legal professionals engaging with human rights law in a Caribbean context.

👉 Submit your abstract (max. 250 words) by 30 January 2026 (extended deadline!)
🔁 Please share the abstract call with interested colleagues and/or the LinkedIn posts from the Research Center, Brechtje and Chun!

Research Writing Sprints

The next Research Writing Sprints dates are out! All sessions will take place in the Research Center! Send an email to research@ua.aw to receive calendar invites for the sessions.

During the Research Writing Sprints we sit down together to write. At the beginning of the session we set and discuss our goals, and at the end of the session you have hopefully achieved your writing goals and are making progress on your research project!

Events: Love Data/Methods Weeks 2026

❤️ Love Methods Week 2026
🗓 19–23 January 2026
🌍 Online and free workshops / seminars

✔ Write & deposit reusable protocols
✔ Peer-review methods
✔ Use lab notebooks to generate transparent documentation
✔ Share methods that others actually reproduce and cite

❤️ Love Data Week 2026
🗓 9-13 February 2026
🌍 Online and free workshops / seminars

✔ Preregistration: Increase Rigor and Reduce Bias
✔ Sharing data on a data repository (Zenodo)
✔ Electronic Lab Notebooks