'Prefer to give starters grants to groups of scientists'
Some universities do not want to award the new starter grants to individual university lecturers, but to groups. Consultations are being held with the ministry to see if this is possible.
Image: Pixabay
In order to make scientists less dependent on the competitive grants of research funder NWO at the start of their careers, Minister Dijkgraaf will make 156 million euros available in starters grants over the next few years, which the universities may award themselves. These are grants of 300 thousand euros each for young university lecturers who receive a permanent contract.
Criticism
The Young Academy, the association of relatively young top scientists, announced in June that it was happy with the extra investments, but wondered how the universities will distribute these starter grants. “In that case, a new competition, with associated work pressure, is inevitable”, wrote the members.
Chair Marcel Levi of research financer NWO had already planned for this before warned and the House of Representatives also had something at the end of June asked questions. “Do researchers really need to compete less with each other?” GroenLinks, for example, wanted to know from Minister Dijkgraaf.
WOinActie proposed to divide the grants among all scientists. They can then look together at what they can do with it, for example hiring a new university lecturer with the four of them.
Acknowledge and Appreciate
Almost six months later, some universities are still not sure exactly how they are going to divide the money. The Faculty of Archeology at Leiden University is already out. He wants to award the grants to groups of scientists, according to a article from university magazine Mare. “That is not what Minister Dijkgraaf wants, but the universities themselves do want it,” said director of operational management Jan Pronk in the meeting of the faculty council.
The board of Leiden University would also support the proposal. “It fits perfectly with the idea of 'recognizing and appreciating', which looks beyond the number of individual publications but sees research more as a team effort,” says Pronk in Mare.
Consultation
According to the university association UNL, it is true that there are even more universities that want to design the starter grant differently. “The situation can differ per faculty, so we would like to see universities given the space to respond to this,” the spokesperson writes. “To see what is possible”, talks are taking place with the ministry about the precise interpretation of the administrative agreement concluded in July.
The ministry confirms that there is consultation about the starter grants and does not want to respond yet.
Also read: Vulnerable people get attention at 'True Opening' academic year
