Journal: Promise of Science: Over 10,000 doctoral available

Dutch National site for Doctoral Theses officially launched

Over 10,000 doctoral theses freely available worldwide

Professor Blom, the University Rector of the Radboud University Nijmegen, launched the National site for Doctoral Theses ‘Promise of Science’ on behalf of all University Rectors in the Netherlands. At the initiative of the SURF Foundation over 10,000 doctoral theses are currently available worldwide on the www.DAREnet.nl/promiseofscience website. The doctoral theses originate from all universities in the Netherlands. They are no longer gathering dust in attics or on academic shelves. Now everyone can have access to new and sometimes groundbreaking research in the Netherlands.

Photo's from the Launch of Promise of Science Site: Prof. Kees Blom with Eddy Rijntjes

Each year approximately 2500 doctoral theses are published in the Netherlands. Through them young scientists present the most recent theories in a certain field. Until now these research results were hard to access. By making them available over the Internet both the author and the university can showcase their research. A broad public can benefit from this, not only fellow scientists. Public exposure of research results also is a major contribution to highlighting the Netherlands as a knowledge economy.

“The quality of our doctoral research is very high. Dutch universities have every reason to create maximum exposure“ according to professor Henk Zijm, the University Rector of the University of Twente and chairman of the ICT and Research platform of SURF.

Eddy Rijntjes, Board member of Promovendi Netwerk Nederland (Dutch network for doctoral students), is very pleased with the National site for Doctoral Theses. He states: “It is important for us as young researchers to break new ground and to gain more recognition. A thesis that is publicly accessible now will be our global business card!”

Gerard van Westrienen, project manager at SURF Foundation, comments on the National site for Doctoral Theses: "Providing public access to all doctoral theses creates a true treasure trove of research results. The academic world provides enthusiastic cooperation. Other countries appear somewhat envious of this Dutch initiative that has no match anywhere in the world, with this many doctoral theses on a national scale.”

The National Site for Doctoral Theses ‘Promise of Science’ was developed within the national DARE (Digital Academic REpositories) programme. This is a joint collaboration of all universities in the Netherlands, a number of scientific organisations and SURF. The aim of the DARE programme is to make research publications publicly accessible without any restrictions. The website DAREnet (www.DAREnet.nl) is developed to realise public access to this material, through one site. DAREnet also contains a selection of ‘Cream of Science’, this gives access to publications of 200 prominent scientists in the Netherlands. With Promise of Science there is now also room for young, rising researchers next to the ‘established’ scientists.

About SURF Foundation
SURF is the higher education and research partnership organisation for network services and information and communications technology (ICT).