From this spring onwards, Radboud University will participate in the SURF Nextcloud pilot (“SURF Works”). The pilot runs from April to December 2026 and offers staff the opportunity to gain extensive experience with Nextcloud: a digital environment that provides a sovereign alternative to the current applications within Microsoft 365. Staff members who are willing to carry out part of their daily work in Nextcloud for at least six months are invited to register for the pilot.
Why this pilot?
Radboud University is conducting an important exploration aimed at increasing digital autonomy and sovereignty. This involves investigating alternatives to the widely used Microsoft 365 environment.
‘Digital autonomy’ refers to the ability to make independent choices, even when using technology provided by third parties. ‘Digital sovereignty’ goes a step further and aims for full control over the technological chain (software, hardware and data).
For this reason, Radboud University is participating in this pilot organised by SURF, the Dutch ICT cooperative for education and research. SURF offers SURF Works: a specially configured environment (based on Nextcloud) for secondary vocational, higher professional and university education. It currently represents the most widely used sovereign and more autonomous alternative to M365 applications. Staff members participating in this pilot will receive access to this environment.
This pilot provides the university with the opportunity to:
- discover and test new digital ways of working;
- gain practical experience with migration processes;
- explore which solutions align well with educational, research and support processes;
- gain insight into functionality, usability and the level of support required.
What does participation in this pilot involve?
The pilot seeks staff members who are willing to carry out part of their daily work in SURF Works for an extended period (at least six months). The aim is not simply to explore the environment briefly, but to work in a production-ready setting. Initially, space is available for 100 staff members.
Participants are expected to:
- be curious about Nextcloud and interested in testing a concrete usage scenario (such as project work, team meetings, collaboration with external partners, teaching, research, etc.). Participants may propose their own use case;
- actively provide feedback on the functioning of the SURF Works environment and contribute to the evaluation;
- represent a range of perspectives: critical, positive, or somewhere in between;
- accept that the pilot environment in SURF Works will be cleared after the pilot concludes (with support provided to ensure data can be retained safely).
Mail integration (such as linking Outlook email and calendar) will not yet be available at the start of the pilot. Discussions on this topic are ongoing with SURF, and this functionality is expected to become available during the pilot period.
Interested in participating? Register now
The aim of this pilot is to include as broad a representation of staff from Radboud University as possible and to test the functionality across a wide range of contexts. To support this, staff members (or groups) wishing to participate are asked to briefly indicate, when registering, what aspects of SURF Works they are particularly interested in exploring.
Registration should therefore include a short description of a usage scenario (use case): what should be tested and what is the intended outcome?
You can register to participate in the pilot via the registration form. Please note: in the form, select ‘English’ as the language option.
Support
To ensure participants can use the SURF Works environment as smoothly as possible, support will be provided by Information & Library Services (ILS). For questions, participants may contact the ICT Helpdesk: 024 36 22222 or icthelpdesk [at] ru.nl.
More information can be found on the page ‘SURF Nextcloud Pilot (Surf Works) – Towards a sovereign collaboration environment’.