The topic of Recognition & Appreciation has been high on the agenda in the Netherlands since the Dutch knowledge institutions and research funders (VSNU, NFU, KNAW, NWO and ZonMw) published the joint Position Paper 'Room for everyone’s talent: towards a new balance in the recognition and rewards for academics' in November 2019. In this paper, the parties involved express their desire to recognise and value scientists from a broader perspective of their work.
Position Paper
The main objective, as described in the Position Paper, is to develop a system of recognition and appreciation of scientists and research that:
- enables diversification and dynamisation of different career paths. This will do more justice to the qualities of each individual and the qualities that EUR needs to function optimally within its core domains of education, research and social impact;
- does justice to both the independence and the individual qualities and ambitions of scientists and to team achievements;
- emphasises the quality of the work and places less emphasis on quantitative results (such as number of publications);
- stimulates all aspects of Open Science;
- stimulates high-quality academic leadership
The topic of Recognition & Rewards has been high on the agenda in the Netherlands since the Dutch knowledge institutions and research funders (VSNU, NFU, KNAW, NWO and ZonMw) published the joint Position Paper 'Room for everyone’s talent: towards a new balance in the recognition and rewards for academics' in November 2019. In this paper, the parties involved express their desire to recognise and value scientists from a broader perspective of their work.
National programme
Following the position paper and in order to realise these goals, a national programme plan has been drawn up. A steering group consisting of representatives from VSNU, NFU, KNAW, NWO and ZonMw will provide collective guidance for the change programme. VSNU and NFU have agreed to work together on the transition at universities and university medical centres. A steering group has been set up for this purpose.
The first step in the change programme is to develop a vision on the desired behaviour and culture together, as within the various organisations.Â
The national Recognition & Rewards programme has six phases:
- Phase 1: Research and vision formulation
All universities will compose a committee that, together with administrators of the university concerned, will investigate the ambition as formulated in the Position Paper. The institutions formulate a widely supported vision in which they translate the objectives of the Position Paper to their own organisation. Each university has also selected one (or more) departments where experiments will be conducted with a new way of recognition and rewards. - Phase 2: Increase imagination and experimentation
Simultaneously with the formulation of the vision, a phase of increasing imagination begins in all organisations: Good practices are exchanged, narratives are shared, inspiration sessions take place and there is room to experiment. Actions are aimed at exploring and increasing confidence in new possibilities and at making what happens visible. - Phase 3: Giving meaning
In this phase, action is asked of executives, research groups, departments and the like to speak out and together give local substance to the organisation's vision. What talents do they want to utilise? Which career paths do they want to encourage? Which teams do they want to recognise? - Phase 4: Specifying and development
In this phase, the supporting products and criteria for the Recognition & Rewards system are developed. - Phase 5: Implementing new processes, systems and developed products
The new supporting products and criteria are embedded in daily activities. Academics can be confident that the assessment criteria used by managers, research reviewers and research funders will lead to recognition and appreciation of their work. - Phase 6: Keeping it
In this phase, efforts will be required to ensure that the new system of recognition and rewards is increasingly part of everyday practice.