New Joint Project Brings Science's Next Wave
to Speakers of Spanish, Portuguese Worldwide

A new partnership between AAAS and Science's career advice Web site, Next Wave, and a Web site for students on the Iberian Peninsula and in Latin America will soon bring career development news and advice to Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking students on both sides of the Atlanti—and on both sides of the Equator.

Next Wave (www.nextwave.org) has for seven years offered articles on career development (including career pathways for scientists and engineers, grant-writing tips, lifestyle issues, and legislative news) for post-graduate scientists. Those articles appear primarily in English (although some are also in German and Dutch) and are aimed at scientists in the United States, Singapore, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and much of the rest of Europe.

The Web site for students, called Universia (www.universia.net), is an educational portal representing 650 universities—and reaching some 10 million students—in ten Hispanic and Lusophone countries. The largest such university network in the world, Universia supports the development of information technology for universities in Latin America and on the Iberian Peninsula by offering free services, articles, and translated course materials from American universities, like the Wharton School of Business, and MIT's Open Courseware.

Continuing in its tradition of offering top-quality information to its member institutions, Universia will, starting this week, also offer translations of Science's Next Wave articles. Initially, the Universia/Next Wave portal will include more than a dozen articles, with more to follow throughout the year. (The articles will be refreshed weekly at first and then on a monthly basis.)

"We believe that the Next Wave materials will not only interest science postgraduates, but also undergraduate students of science who are often in need of similar advice and pointers," says Rebecca Rippin, who heads up the Universia initiative. "We also hope that this initial collaboration will attract the support and interest of science-related industries eager to communicate their employment policies and priority areas to the thousands of science graduates and post graduates leaving Ibero-American universities each year."

By offering translated Next Wave materials on both the Next Wave and Universia sites, Next Wave hopes to draw more undergraduate students into its fold. "This is an excellent opportunity to bring the Science and AAAS brands to young people all over the world," says Next Wave editor Crispin Taylor, "and it will enhance our efforts to create a strong presence in Europe." Efforts to attract undergraduates first began last year, with the Minority Scientist's Network (www.miscinet.org), which offers bulletin boards, resources, and articles about issues pertinent to minority undergraduate science students—and those that would mentor them.

Although the initial articles will be translated from existing Next Wave content, eventually Next Wave may develop articles specifically for the Universia audience. "We'll be watching the usage data on the first batch of materials that we put up," Taylor says. "And my hope is that we'll be creating new materials targeted at students in Latin America and on the Iberian Peninsula in the near future."

—Susan Davis

18 March 2003