Read more in the following articles:

• What is Viva Engage?
• What is Connections?
• What is the WUR Support Portal?

In 2025, the contract with the intranet provider will expire. This presented an opportunity to explore how we want to use our main communication channels (website and intranet) in the coming years. At the same time, there is both the need and the ambition to create a modern, smarter internal digital workplace tailored to the needs and requirements of both staff and students. In other words: we want to improve the user experience for our employees.

The three new functions in the Teams environment will help and support staff in the way we communicate, collaborate, and share knowledge with each other, both online and offline. It’s almost self-evident that the way we work has changed significantly compared to, say, five years ago. A different type of online platform for staff is therefore a logical next step. The new Teams functions ensure that you stay connected with your WUR colleagues whether you’re in the office, working from home, or elsewhere. This renewal also offers the opportunity to better organize management, roles, and permissions. In addition, we want to make the most of the innovations now available in online systems.

If you go to intranet.wur.nl, you will be redirected to voice.wur.nl, which in turn redirects you to a knowledge article about the Voice project.

The information under “Practical Information” and “About WUR” in the old intranet has largely been moved by the information owners to the WUR Support Portal. You can find it by using the search bar, or by browsing the menu at the top to look for information in the appropriate category.

Starting now, you will find three new programs (apps) in your Teams environment: Connections, Viva Engage, and the WUR Support Portal. Together, these three apps replace the old intranet. It may take some time to get used to finding the information you previously accessed on the intranet. That’s why we’re here to help you get started.

The documents and information that used to be in “Groups”?

The documents, knowledge, and information that were available in Groups have been converted into knowledge articles in the WUR Support Portal. You can find them through the categories in the navigation menu or by searching for the topic in the search bar. Can’t find a document or topic that used to be on the intranet? Please fill in this form. We’ll be happy to help you retrieve the information.

The documents and information from “Practical Information” and “About WUR”?

The documents, knowledge, and information from Practical Information and About WUR have been converted into knowledge articles in the WUR Support Portal. You can browse the topics via the navigation menu or search for them using the search bar. Can’t find a document or a topic? Please fill in this form.

News items from before September 2025?

In Connections, you will find the news items published from September 2025 onwards. A conscious decision was made not to migrate an archive of earlier news into the new environment.

Agenda items from before September 2025?

In Connections, you will find the agenda items published from September 2025 onwards. A conscious decision was made not to migrate an archive of earlier agenda items into the new environment.

The intranet groups I was a member of?

Administrators of intranet groups could choose either to move their group (including members) to Viva Engage, or to leave it behind with the intranet. You have automatically been added to the community of your science unit, as well as to communities with the same name as the intranet groups you were already a member of. If the administrator of your group did not create a community with the same name, then it was not transferred.

Conversations from the intranet groups?

When creating the new communities, intranet group administrators chose to make a fresh start. The (social) conversations have not been migrated to the communities. If groups contained substantive knowledge, this has, in principle, been transferred into a knowledge article in the WUR Support Portal. Can’t find a document or topic? Please fill in this form.

More information and support

Discover more in the following knowledge articles:

• Three new functions in Teams - General explanation, including the communication tools
• What is Connections? - Basic explanation of Connections + FAQ
• What is Viva Engage? - Basic explanation of Viva Engage + FAQ
• Using the WUR Support Portal

Need help?

For any questions, you can contact:

• One of the communication advisors of your science unit
• The IT Service Desk for technical issues or malfunctions

In the online vision, we examined how WUR’s available online channels can be used as effectively and efficiently as possible. The Microsoft Teams environment currently offers suitable applications to best support the exchange of information between the organization and staff, as well as among staff themselves (Connections and Viva Engage).

Although the WUR Support Portal is not a Microsoft application, it is smartly integrated into the Microsoft Teams environment.

For clarity: Viva Engage and Connections are available to WUR staff (including PhD candidates). The WUR Support Portal is available to staff, students, and in part also to external visitors.

The online vision can be found here.

To help you decide where best to place your content, a decision tree has been created. Consult this to see which channel is most suitable for your communication.

Yes, weekly Lunch & Learn sessions will be organized through the end of 2025. In short twenty-minute sessions, you’ll be brought up to speed on various topics and aspects of the new applications. Dates and topics will follow soon. In addition, there will also be weekly walk-in hours through the end of this year where you can ask questions:

Every Monday morning – 11:00–12:00, Atlas B:119

Every Thursday morning – 10:00–11:00, join online 

You can find the posters and an info sheet here (the link will be added later).

In the new apps, both the new visual identity and digital accessibility have been taken into account as far as the respective systems allow.

In 2023, an online vision was developed for the internal and external communication channels. This led, among other things, to an overview of the functions of the current intranet. The direction chosen by the steering committee was to explore to what extent these functions could be accommodated within existing services. An assessment of existing applications and services showed that the five functions of the old intranet could be covered—without additional licensing or hosting costs—by using a combination of ServiceNow and Microsoft 365. The steering committee approved this idea, and the project group has since followed it up and implemented it.

WUR takes the concerns around Microsoft and Big Tech very seriously and, as a sector, we are working on alternatives. At present, the use of Microsoft is something we, as a sector, are collectively doing—for a wide range of purposes, including security. Together with the boards of the universities, the CIOs/IT directors, SURF, and UNL, we are considering where we may need to make different choices collectively. This is complex and extensive, but at the same time we are also working on concrete pilots. Alternatives work differently, and we need to gain experience with them—both from a user perspective and from a technical perspective.

You can now find internal vacancies in Connections on the homepage. Click "Show more" in the Dashboard with the tiles to see the internal vacancies tile:

The links to the WUR applications are now in Connections. You can find Connections in Teams, in the menu bar on the left. If you open Connections and scroll down, you should see the 'Resources', with all applications: