Website template for researchers

2025/08/07

As part of its strategy for excellence, TU Darmstadt is striving for a more uniform online presence for its scientists. A new template for personal websites and individual support are intended to further increase visibility and international reputation.

The Technical University of Darmstadt is making significant progress in its Excellence Strategy – most recently through its ongoing application for a joint Excellence Cluster together with its partners in the Rhine-Main University Alliance. The application itself has already increased visibility and interest within the international scientific community. To meet this increased public interest, the Executive Board is placing greater emphasis on a coherent external image for the university – especially on the personal websites of its researchers.

To support this, the Science Communication Center (SCC) is now providing a standardized website template for personal TU websites. The template combines mandatory basic information such as contact details and TUBiblio entries with optional elements that researchers can add individually, such as information on their research, teaching, or social engagement. It uses established design elements from the FirstSpirit content management system.

The technical basis is a standardized contact data record, which is also used to automatically generate existing functions such as employee lists or contact fields on the websites. The SCC offers comprehensive support for this: A sample data record can be created in each FirstSpirit project, which can be easily customized. Individual solutions – such as a separate subpage with an integrated data record – are also possible. Rights are assigned in accordance with the existing web processes at TU Darmstadt.

The SCC asks users, especially those with multiple active websites, to provide feedback on their main page so that it can be prioritized for further development.

Further information and two sample websites can be found on the SCC website under the heading “Personal Websites.” If you have any questions, please contact the online editors Paul Glogowski () and Patrick Bal ().