Faculty & Research Websites
Whether you’re interested in promoting your entire research portfolio or a specific project, a BU website is an important tool for getting the word out about your work. The University offers free templates to make website development easier than ever.
Build a Faculty Website
Faculty are encouraged to create and maintain a website to showcase their research and scholarly activities. This website will become an important cornerstone of your online presence, and a go-to resource for potential funders, collaborators, and students to learn more about your research interests and work.
Requesting a Site
BU faculty interested in setting up a new website are encouraged to visit this model website, which includes instructional or sample language on types of content and formatting. Faculty can then request their own site through BU Tech Web. Under sites.bu.edu, select “Faculty/Staff Individual” to get started. In the corresponding form, please note in your answer for question #5, “Please describe what this site will be used for,” that you would like a clone of the Faculty Model Site (including the reference URL for the model website above).
Loading a Site
Once you have requested a website, IS&T will send you a link to your new website. Your website comes pre-loaded with sample content to help you think through what content you may consider adding. You can customize, delete, add, and edit all content on your new site to fit your needs.
For ideas and best practices, check out your sample content as a starting point, as well as the documentation for BU Landing Pages, a core new feature of your website. If you ever get stuck, or accidentally delete something, you can refer back to the sample content at sites.bu.edu/facultymodel at any time.
Trainings
You can also get additional support in learning to manage and edit your website through one of IS&T’s WordPress trainings sessions. Before you request that IS&T launch your new site, please ensure that you have reviewed and updated all pages, and that no sample content remains on the site.
Build a Project-Specific Website
Sometimes research groups will need to develop a website to showcase the work of a specific project. These websites can be excellent sources of news and information for students, faculty, staff, and external audiences, as well as potential funders and collaborators.
Requesting a Site
The University offers website templates to build such websites within the BU WordPress environment and hosted on the BU server. If you are building a new website or if your existing website is not currently housed at BU and you want to transfer it to the BU environment, your website administrator should fill out a request form for a new BU website.
If you are a BU research center or program, you may be eligible to use a special BU web theme developed by the Office of Research. Reach out to Emma Bonanomi, the Director of Communications in the Office of Research, to learn more.
Trainings
If you don’t have a website administrator, you can send a student or staff member to BU’s free WordPress training, which is offered throughout the year. You also have the option of hiring an outside designer through the normal contracting and procurement process. The freelancer will need to work within the managed BU WordPress environment with a guest account, set up by IS&T.