UARC Newsletter May
In the past month the Research Center and Research Committee have been working hard on establishing a Research Ethics Committee, enabling the review of ethical applications from the University of Aruba researchers by the start of the next academic year! The University of Aruba has also signed the Statement of support for a global research ecosystem, supporting the critical infrastructure necessary for sharing and accessing research, such as investing in our Open Knowledge Repository, of which the underlying infrastructure is maintained by Atmire! We also received an update of the grant proposal we submitted to Open Science NL (NWO) in January!
Dutch Caribbean Digital Competence Network
The Research Center collaborated with CHECK (Caribbean Higher Education Council of the Kingdom of the Netherlands) on a research proposal for Open Science NL (NWO) which got funded! We received a €1 million grant to establish the Dutch Caribbean Digital Competence Network (DCDC-Network), which aims to enhance digital data competencies in the region over the next years. Read the announcement from Open Science NL for more information, with a translation in Papiamento also available on the Repository.
Research Highlight: Sharona Jurgens
Sharona Jurgens published the data underlying the publication Are there limits to growth of tourism on the Caribbean islands? Case-study Aruba this month on Zenodo! This dataset captures the morphological urban extent of Aruba from 1986 to 2020 in four time increments. You can now download the data for yourself and take a closer look! Congratulations to Sharona for publishing this interesting dataset!
Research Highlight: Liesje Proveyer
Together with colleagues, Liesje Proveyer published the article: Psychological needs and well-being through the eyes of vocational students in Aruba, Dutch Caribbean! This research examines the emotional and mental well-being of vocational students in Aruba. In addition to analyzing their scores on autonomy, competence and relatedness, other needs were explored that are more context specific. A total of 422 students participated in the questionnaire and 33 interviews were conducted! An Open Access version of the article is available on our Repository, as well as the amazing infographics that Liesje made! Congratulations to Liesje for this fantastic work and accomplishment!
Code Anxiety Club by UK Data Services
Feeling overwhelmed by the command line? Confused by file pathways? Want to navigate the world of coding with confidence? Join the Code Anxiety Club organized by the UK Data Services. The sessions are free and take place on YouTube! Viewers can follow along common beginner topics while coding live for a quick half hour. No prior experience, installed software or setup required.
27 May: Introduction to the command line
24 June: Opening Windows: Navigating IDEs vs. command line
22 July: Where am I? Understanding file navigation
26 August: Pathways to success: Mastering file pathways
Trainings & Events
The Digital Research Academy is organizing several trainings in the upcoming weeks, also including trainings on using HPC clusters (contact Esther for more info if needed!):
Git and the Command Line for Beginners (May 28, 9-10:30 AM)
Successful & Beautiful Research Poster Presentations (June 5, 8-9 AM)
You can also join a webinar on Social Sciences research data anonymisation taking place on June 2 (7 AM).
And 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐫𝐮𝐛𝐚: 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦? is taking place on 23 May, 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
in the MC Chapel, University of Aruba. Join to reflect, discuss, and shape the future of Aruban democracy together!
Wikipedia project on Aruba
The Wikipedia Project on Aruba is looking for input from potential collaborators: fill out their short survey before 22 May!
The State of Open Data 2025 survey is now open!
Springer Nature, Digital Science and Figshare would like to invite researchers to participate in their survey on open data. Complete the survey (and perhaps win a $100 gift-card for your efforts!).