“In my position as Open Science Programme Manager, I’m responsible for facilitating open science within the research community. Open science means that all of your research data and publications are available via the Internet, without limitations. I support the education and research institutions in making open science as convenient and efficient as possible.” 

Clear goal

“SURF stands for ‘open’: we strive to provide full open access to academic materials and research results. To do that, we bring together a variety of specialisms and parties, or we develop tools and services that make it easier for researchers to conduct open science. Together, we look for ways to realise the transition to open science for researchers and institutions. In the process, we ask what institutions need to draw up their policy, how we can support their researchers, which information we can let commercial parties manage, and which role public parties should play in it all.”  

“I work together with institutions of higher learning and with umbrella organisations in the Netherlands, but also with international organisations like Knowledge Exchange and the European Commission.  That means a lot of coordination, but I always have a clear goal in mind: to promote open science. And that makes my work very tangible in the end.”  

Complex environment

“Collaboration with a wide range of partners and with people at all sorts of levels is a crucial element of my work. In my job, you need to enjoy having a lot of contact with a lot of people. Every day is different, there’s a lot of variety, and that makes me personally very happy. I work in a complex environment with a lot of conflicting interests; both commercial and political, and both national and international. To me, the main challenge in that environment is to find a way to work optimally together.” 

Open, informal and close to its members

“SURF is a cooperative by and for the members. The innovation that is intended to accelerate open science affects a lot of the people and organisations that are members of SURF. They include policy and ICT departments, libraries, researchers, etc. So it’s important to maintain close contact with all those different parties. That’s what makes my work so fascinating.”  
 
“The atmosphere at SURF is very open and informal. We’ve had flexible office hours here for a long time, so it’s nothing new for us. You have a lot of freedom to organise your own working days. The nice thing about our office is that you have a lot of colleagues from other SURF departments and projects nearby. That makes it easy to coordinate with colleagues who have relevant knowledge and expertise when you need to. It’s definitely an inspiring work environment!”