Building our first consortium website

Your consortium website is probably the most important communication tool you have. We recently launched our first Open Consortium website built on our technology package, for a European research network training new researchers in male reproductive biology and andrology.

Every scientific consortium needs an website. These websites often must be independent from the research institutes participating in the consortium, and are managed by one of the research institutes participating in the consortium, the coordinator. Their needs center around creating a place to publicize the research being conducted, the researchers involved in the project, and as a tool to attract talented young researchers to join the network.

We built such a website for Reprotrain, a Marie Curie training network funded by the 7th Framework Programme. The network aims to provide train researchers in solving problems relating to Male Reproductive Biology and Andrology, hence the use of sperm cells as the identity of the project. Seven research groups and two academic institutes from six countries participate in the consortium, and the consortium is managed by the group of Rafael Olivia from the IDIBABS research center in Barcelona, Spain.

The website has been built on Drupal 7 and the content is written and maintained by Valeria de Azcoitia, Reprotrain's project manager. It has a job application system, partner descriptions, dynamic news and events, and much more. Best of all, it looks great on all devices.