Activities
Researchers across the WUN organise a variety of activities to strengthen their collaborations. These take place in both the physical and the virtual environment. Generally, our activities are for research faculty and postgraduate students. WUN does not facilitate undergraduate student exchange.
Networking
Virtual environment
WUN provides an ideal environment for researchers to become accustomed to working across distances and time zones and with colleagues who are active in different cultural and economic environments. Our researchers use many tools to communicate. These range from email discussion lists to telephone conferences and desktop video conferencing. Websites and data archives enable communities to share resources and files.
Conferences and Workshops
Faculty are encouraged to organise international meetings to further their research aims. Funding for these events can be incorporated into a Research Development Fund application or come from institutional funds to encourage international collaboration but researchers are also encouraged to look for resources from outside of the Network.
Experts from outside of the WUN are often invited to collaborate in specific research activities - both virtual and physical. Unfortunately, the Network is not able to provide finances to assist with participation of non-WUN members.
Teaching and Learning
Many WUN collaborations include activities that produce resources for use in teaching or which provide early stage researchers with opportunities to develop presentation skills. Different research communities share modules on Masters degrees, develop archives of virtual seminars for use in teaching and postgraduate research, as well as providing virtual Master classes and organising international summer schools.
The Research Mobility Programme provides early stage researchers, including postgraduates, with access to expertise and rare facilities that are not available within their own institutions. These visits also enable 'home' and 'host' supervisors to widen their own networks.
Several partners make on-line courses available that have come about through WUN collaborations: