In this article, we describe the rationale, design and evaluation of a widget-based dashboard to support scholars' awareness of their Research Networks. We introduce the concept of a Research Network and discuss Personal Research Environments that are built of as a development parallel to Personal Learning Environments. Based on the results of an international interview study, we report on the design of a paper prototype of an awareness dashboard (AWESOME). Research in the Internet age has changed; the dashboard is tailor-made for use in modern research. We compared existing scholarly toolsets with our paper prototype. The evaluation of the user tests shows that, on all tested items, AWESOME performs better than the existing toolsets: it is easier to use, less time-consuming, more user-friendly, more supportive with regards to technology and awareness and, finally, helps researchers to carry out their tasks more effectively.