The Advancing Inclusive Academia programme is a network of academics at EUR that work together to foster career progression and collaboration. The programme will create a sense of community and support beyond faculties, and will support (internal or external) career progression and development.
Outcomes of the programme: increased inclusion and well-being, sense of community, multi-faculty network, multidisciplinary network, and career growth.
The programme contributes to the ‘One connected EUR’ goal of EUR 2030 strategy.
From (Beyond) 25/25 to Advancing Inclusive Academia
In the past years, EUR has implemented two programmes that focused on career growth of our academic community: the 25/25 programme (2020-2021) and the Beyond 25/25 programme (2023-2024). These programmes came to life due to barriers in academic promotion, as evidenced in unequal (gender and cultural background) distribution among academics, with greater diversity in lower levels than higher levels. In total, combining both rounds, almost 110 participants joined the programme. Next to supporting the individuals in getting clarity of where they are in their careers and subsequent career growth, both programmes also offered a space where participants could share their challenges and exchange experiences, learning not only from the workshops, but also from each other. The sense of community was a very valuable by-product of the programme.
Elements
Advancing Inclusive Academia builds on the elements of the (Beyond) 25-25 programmes. Elements of the new programme are:
- Workshops on topics chosen by the participants
- Mentoring (external)
- Co-mentoring (internal); participants mentor each other across faculties
- Portfolio writing
- Participants provide feedback to each other on the portfolio
Target groups
We are extending the target groups for this programme to postdocs, lecturers, assistant professors and associate professors, and to women, colleagues with migration/ethnic minority background, LGBTQIA+ colleagues, and first generation academics.
Quotes by participants
‘The whole journey, including the reviewers’ comments, has been a healing process for me. It has also been an encouraging and enlightening experience. The reflections the process led us to have, have been extremely valuable.’
‘The programme helped me tremendously: I applied for a position, encouraged by the programme, I took the plunge. And look at that: I got the job. Thanks for helping me grow.’
More internal engagement
The Advancing Inclusive Academia programme is in line with the new strategy 2030. Based on the feedback and experiences from the previous two rounds, there is still a need for the support that was provided via the (Beyond) 25/25 programme. Given the current financial situation of the universities, an original programme (with possible financial support for participants) is not deemed financially viable.
The Advancing Inclusive Academia programme retains essential elements that contribute to the previous programme’s success:
- Workshops on topics chosen by participants
- Mentoring
- Portfolio preparation
- Cross- feedback on career portfolio by participants of the programme
In the Advancing Inclusive Academia programme, there is higher internal engagement among the participants, as they rely on each other for portfolio feedback.
Furthermore, Advancing Inclusive Academia expands the target group of the programme to include Postdocs and Lecturers (with a PhD), next to Assistant professors and Associate professors. In this way, more experienced participants can take up mentoring roles to more junior participants.
Planning / Save the dates 2025-2026
- September 4: announcement of the Advancing Inclusive Academia programme
- September 15, 18 and 30: Q&A about the programme (hybrid)
- October 6: last day to send in applications
- October 30 (15:30-17:30): meet and greet and conversation about career progression, community and collective growth
- November 20 (15:00-17:30): cross-mentoring training event
- January 20 (11:00-13:00): portfolio writing session: a ‘preparation’ session for participants to support them in finding a red thread in their portfolio
- March 31: deadline portfolio for peer-review: every participant who submits a portfolio agrees to review portfolios of two other participants
- April 13 (15:30): portfolio reviewing session
- May 18: portfolio peer review results
- June: closing session
- Along the year: 1-1 conversations with the team and support
Registration form and nomination form
You can nominate yourself or someone else for the Advancing Inclusive Academia programme with the forms below. The deadline for submitting the forms is Friday, October 6, 2025.
You can expect a response and/or information about next steps no later than October 15, 2025. For questions about the programme, please contact the project lead Dr. Ana Uribe Sandoval (aia@eur.nl).