What had to be done?

This changeover was preceded by an extensive tendering and planning phase, in which several service units at WU were actively involved for about two years. A team consisting of Verena Le Guen (project manager, succeeding Christine Albrecht), Louie Ulrich, Johanna Mendes (later Monika Corso), Daniela Weismeier-Sammer (later Johann Wolfschwenger), Astrid Paulis, Susanne Tacha, Brigitta Gregori, Gertraud Novotny and Michael Katzmayr, as well as many other WU staff, has spent the past few months dealing with all the issues surrounding the technical and content-related challenges that the introduction of PURE entailed.

The major work packages were the integration of PURE into the existing database systems (BACH and SAP), the data migration from FIDES, the representation of the entire third-party funding process, and the integration of the institutional repository ePub^WU. Internal communications and the design of supporting and training materials also took a lot of time and effort.

"Above all, this project has strengthened cooperation between the units," says Johann Wolfschwenger.

"Big thanks to our focus group, who gave us insights from a user’s point of view on PURE..." says Astrid Paulis, "...this has been an important input to our work with PURE."

The next steps

After the launch of PURE, the work isn`t done. The project team's goal is to provide WU employees with the best possible support in using the new system. This includes a wide range of information and training, support via Jira and a lot of personal effort in answering questions.

The project team also ensures that the users wishes and suggestions are incorporated into the further development of the system. In this way, WU is keeping pace with international standards in the areas of research information and open access and is moving in the direction of sustainable and up-to-date research reporting.