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👥 Manage Group Members

Overview

This is the Manage Group Members page, part of VU Tools → Research Drive in the A-LIFE RDM collection.

This page covers how to share your Research Drive project space with collaborators, set permissions, and manage group access.

Supporting materials: SURF RD User Manual
Authors: Irene Martorelli, Brett Olivier — Last modification: 2026-06-26 — Version: 0.1.0

Work in progress

This page is under active development. Screenshots and further step-by-step instructions will be added soon. The content below provides an overview of the main features and links to the relevant SURF documentation.

📂 1. Sharing your project folder

Once your Research Drive project space is set up, you can share it with collaborators inside and outside the VU. Sharing in Research Drive works at the folder level — you control who has access to each folder and what they can do with it.

To share a folder:

  1. Go to the main folder overview in your Research Drive space.
  2. Click the ... (three dots) next to the folder name.
  3. Click Details.
  4. In the Activities tab, you can see who the folder is already shared with.
  5. In the Sharing tab, you have options to share with Users, Groups, or Federated users (external institutions).
  6. Type a name — you can use either a VU name or VUID.

Further reading

👉 SURF — How to upload or download files

✉ 2. Invite a new user

As the project owner or group admin, you can invite new users — both internal (VU) and external — to your Research Drive space.

How it works:

  1. Go to the Dashboard and find the Invite user or Invitation App.
  2. Fill in the recipient's email address and send the invitation.
  3. The invited person receives an email with a unique, one-time link.
  4. Clicking the link guides them to create a Research Drive account (if they do not have one) or log in with existing credentials.
  5. Once they accept and register, they become a member of your group with the permissions you assigned.

Internal vs external users

  • Internal VU users may log in with their existing institutional credentials but still receive an invite email.
  • External users always receive a link to set up a Research Drive account.

Further reading

👉 SURF — Invite a new user

🔑 3. Roles and permissions

When sharing a folder, you can assign different permission levels by clicking the wheel icon next to the user's name:

Permission Description
Share User can share the folder with others (does not automatically include edit rights)
Edit User can edit files — automatically includes Create, Change, and Delete
Create User can add new files and folders
Change User can modify existing files
Delete User can delete files and folders

Check permissions carefully

Assigning Edit automatically grants Create, Change, and Delete. Assigning Share alone does not grant edit rights — these must be set separately.

Further reading

👉 SURF — Roles and permissions
👉 SURF — Set permissions when sharing files and folders

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 4. Managing groups

For projects involving multiple collaborators, using custom groups is the recommended approach. Groups allow you to manage access for multiple users at once and assign different permission levels to different folders.

  • Create a personal group via your Personal Settings → Custom Groups.
  • Share your project folder with the group rather than individual users.
  • Manage member roles (member, moderator, admin) at the group level.

What next?

Once your collaborators have access, continue to Document your Data.