A new Directory of Professional Contacts has been launched on the WIFO site, offering first-hand information on key contacts in the field of European VET and HRD research:

Directory of Professional Contacts (DPC): http://www.dpc.wifo-gate.org/

While most of the contacts are VET or HRD researchers, some at national level also work as administrators or documentation specialists in VET and HRD research. In all cases, these professional contacts have vital roles either within research communities or at the interface between research, politics and information systems. The Directory is an extension of the VET&HRD Base (www.vet-hrd.wifo-gate.org), drawing on the overview and analysis of the European research landscape in this field.

The Directory is provided by the Research Forum WIFO in collaboration with the European Research Network in Vocational Education and Training [VETNET] and the University Forum for Human Resource Development [UFHRD]. In its first edition, it includes 171 professional contacts from 31 countries, based on requests for information sent to pre-selected contacts (514). Only those contacts who provided information in response to these requests are included in the Directory. 

The basic principle of selecting 'professional contacts' has been to identify people who have a profound knowledge of VET and/or HRD research themselves but are also interlinked (as 'nodes' of networks) with many other researchers and experts in this field at either European or national level. According to this principle, the following (necessarily strict!) criteria have been applied in pre-selecting professional contacts for the first edition of the Directory: 

    * People carrying out coordinating activities related to major European associations or networks (board members), journals (editors) and projects (coordinators) in the field of  VET/HRD research, incl. a few experts in European VET/HRD from outside Europe who have been involved in major collaborative research activities at European level;
    * Contact people for VET/HRD research and development listed in the national research reports prepared by members of the Cedefop ReferNet and published by Cedefop (see Reference in VET&HRD Base).

In order to promote cross-European collaboration, special care has been taken to present professionals from Central Eastern and Southern Europe (94 contacts). The selection criteria for these contacts have been extended to include members of editorial boards of the selected journals; members of the national consortia of the Cedefop ReferNet, authors of articles/papers in selected journals and conference proceedings, partners in European projects, tutors of PhD students and chairs of Masters programmes.

The Directory will be updated every year on the basis of renewed requests for information. Urgent amendments to the present edition will of course be carried out as they arise. Those colleagues who were not able to respond to the initial call are welcome to join the Directory for the next edition!

Kind regards
Sabine Manning