The University Library in the Aurora European University Alliance

The AURORA European University Alliance

The University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) is one of the founding members of the European alliance AURORA, which was launched in 2016.

Nine universities from the European countries of England, France, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Scotland, Spain and Germany (partner universities) have joined forces to work together on the following topics:

  • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Societal Impact and Relevance of Research
  • Students
  • Innovation of Teaching and Learning
  • Internationalization
  • Sustainability

Aurora Network: What we do
> Education
> Research
> Society

The project addresses not only researchers and teachers, but also students and staff from service institutions. Network meetings take place twice a year at one of the nine participating universities; in 2018, the UDE hosted a meeting at the Essen campus.

While the Aurora network was previously financed from the respective university's own funds, EU funds have been available for the project work since November 2020. The already well-established community will take up the established thematic areas of the university network under the name "Aurora European University Alliance" and continue them in the new format.

> Aurora Homepage
> Aurora at the UDE

The University Library in the Aurora European University Alliance

Since the beginning of the project, the Duisburg-Essen UL has been actively represented in the following working groups:

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Simona Koch, leader of the working group

Educational materials of any kind are included as freely accessible resources in the in the library catalogue Primo and can also be researched and/or deposited in the OER area of the document and publication server DuEPublico.

OER are defined by the fact that they are freely accessible and are freely licensed. The allocation of licences and metadata as well as questions concerning the search, findability, use and further processing or dissemination of educational materials are typical topics that are located in libraries. The social debate and the topics listed here are given a supporting role, especially in the area of "Open Science".

Questions about OER?
We are pleased to help:
simona.koch@uni-due.de

Further information from the UL on the topic of OER can be found here:
https://www.uni-due.de/ub/en/eoer.php

SDG Analysis: Bibliometrics of Relevance

Dr. Eike Spielberg and Dr. Felix Schmidt
They are also advisory members of the working group "Profiling Societal Impact: Rankings and Reputation", which was newly founded in 2020.

With its Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations created a framework within which sustainable development can be categorised. The aim of this Aurora project is to assign the research and teaching output of the participating institutions to these categories and to map the activities and impact of the respective institution in this way.


Questions about bibliometrics?
We are pleased to help:
bibliometrie.ub@uni-due.de

Further information from the UB on the subject of bibliometrics can be found here:
https://www.uni-due.de/ub/bibliometrie/

Aurora Alliance - Research and Innovation for Societal Impact

Dr. Stephanie Rehwald

Open Science promises to lead the way to a more transparent way of conducting and sharing scientific research. Accessibility of research results and research data contributes to the integrity of research - but also requires a cultural change that can be facilitated by framework conditions.

The project promotes exchange on open science practices and the possibilities of institutional policies, e.g. in Research Data Management.

Questions about RI?
We are pleased to help:
stephanie.rehwald@uni-due.de

Questions about Open Science and research data management?
We are pleased to help:
https://www.uni-due.de/rds/

Why is the UL so actively involved?

The Duisburg-Essen University Library sees its role in particular in the course of digitisation as a central partner for all university members. We secure and expand access to electronic media, provide publication support and keep records of UDE publications and their academic impact.

Together with other institutions, the UL takes up the challenge of supporting teachers, researchers and students in the conception and implementation of the presented topics in the respective working contexts.

The UL supports teachers and students in creating open educational resources and using them in teaching practice or creating them involving students. It offers an OER portal that lists OER materials produced by UDE staff and makes them searchable.

It offers a wide range of services related to the analysis of publication output.

It also supports international networking, participates actively in the AURORA project and reflects it back into the working practice of the UDE.