Bella Seehoo
Project Lead
Division of Research & Enterprise
Researcher Profiles
We're making UNSW researchers easier to find
Researcher Profiles account for 60% of all organic traffic to the UNSW research website.
Researcher Profiles is a valuable digital tool that allows us to showcase the unique and varied expertise of our people. Researchers are often the first point of contact for industry partners, HDR candidates, and media enquiries, and an up-to-date and engaging profile represents a significant opportunity for you to attract attention and collaboration.
Update your UNSW Researcher Profile
Log in with your zID to create and update your unique Researcher Profile. Changes are automatically reflected across UNSW Adobe sites every day at 5pm.
This portal allows you to change:
- Bio
- Research expertise
- Contact details
- Social media links
Please note: Publication data is updated through ROS
🚨 ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨
The Division of Research & Enterprise is in the process of transforming Researcher Profiles.
We’re building a modern, engaging platform that enables researchers to showcase their impact and expertise.
This project is a comprehensive uplift of both our technical capabilities and user experience. It will deliver fit‑for‑purpose expert profiles that are clean, functional, and consistent across the UNSW web ecosystem.
The new profiles will better position our experts to attract collaborators, research funding, HDR candidates and media attention.
In the first phase, profiles will be available to researchers, education-focused academics, and technical professional staff (e.g. facility managers).
Project stages
As we are still in an early phase, we don’t yet have a fixed go-live date. We anticipate it will take 12-18 months with work progressing in the stages described below.
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- Initial technical discovery
- Preliminary design in Figma
- Adobe Forms foundation build – Digital Solutions (IT)
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We’ve consulted broadly across all of our faculties and divisions to ensure the new Researcher Profiles will meet the needs of academics and external users. This process has included:
- User testing with UNSW researchers
- Figma prototype of data entry, search, profile & publication pages
- Broad consultation with faculties – facilitated sessions & survey
- 25+ x 1:1 usability interviews with researchers, education-focused academics and professional technical staff
- 4 x 90 minute facilitated workshops
- 1 x all-day drop-in session open to all UNSW staff
- 1 x online workshop with UNSW Canberra
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- Testing with external users e.g. industry, government, media, HDRs
- Final design based on feedback
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- Adobe Forms customisation – Digital Solutions (IT)
- Development of components & site build – MDX (SIEE)
- Source system integrations e.g. PIMS, ROS, InfoEd
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- Profiles can be accessed and created
- Final round of testing and tweaks
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- New profiles go live, existing profiles archived
Uplift focus areas
Technical robustness
Transition to the Adobe platform and integrate with data source systems, such as InfoEd and GRIS, to reduce academic workload.
Search & discoverability
Use keywords, tagging, and filters to make it easier for users to find the right UNSW collaborator.
Content
Refine content fields and provide examples and guidelines to ensure profiles are consistent, relevant and engaging.
Data entry
Streamline and automate (where possible) the data entry process to reduce administrative burden.
UX/UI
Improve the user experience through visual design, intuitive navigation, uniform structure, and engaging content.
How can I find out more?
Reach out to the project team via email or Teams with your ideas, queries or suggestions. We're always keen to hear from you.
FAQs
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With UNSW being amongst the top research universities in the world, it is only fitting that the quality of our researcher profiles reflect our research impact, education, outreach and engagement initiatives of our academics.
The existing profile system has technical limitations and a poor user experience. The new system will focus on:
- Delivering fit-for-purpose researcher/expert profiles that are clean, functional, and consistent across UNSW’s web ecosystem.
- Creating an intuitive experience for researchers to build profiles that effectively showcase their work.
- Improving search and filtering to connect external audiences with the right expertise.
- Reducing fragmentation / duplication by consolidating multiple "Find an Expert" instances.
Ultimately, the new profiles will be easier to create, easier to maintain and enable UNSW academics to be more easily discoverable.
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No. All the current researcher profiles that exist in Drupal will be archived. Because we are making significant changes to what information is captured and how it is displayed, academics will need to create a new profile.
If you have already put significant work into your current profile, we suggest you copy the text into a word document and use it when creating your new profile.
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When the new profiles launch, your current profile will be archived. Any content that exists that links to your current profile will either be:
- Redirected to your new profile if it is published.
- Redirected to the new Find a Researcher page if your new profile is not yet published.
Once the existing profile is archived you will no longer have access to it or the content that was on it.
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We will give you at least three months notice before the existing profiles are archived and the new profiles are made live.
We will provide you with a word document template of the new profile (and other supporting material) so you can write your content in advance.
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While we do not have the capacity to write profiles for our academics, we will be providing support and guidance in multiple ways including:
- Developing annotated exemplar profiles
- Creating support videos that provide advice on how to create engaging content
- Creating word document template that reflects the new profile so you can pre-write it
- Content advice sessions
In addition, your faculty or school may organise or provide additional support.
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No, in the initial phase HDR’s will not get profiles. We are looking at adding this option in Phase 2 of the project.
More resources for UNSW researchers