Timeline

Academia

Meet & Greet bij NWO op donderdag 15 juni

Heb jij een passie voor de wetenschap? Wil je graag een actieve bijdrage leveren aan de versterking van het wetenschappelijk onderzoek en de impact daarvan op de maatschappij? Dat kan als programma coördinator, als financial, IT'er of in een andere functie binnen onze organisatie. Je bent van harte welkom. Onze eerstvolgende Meet & Greet is op donderdag 15 juni.

NWO is dé nationale wetenschapsfinancier en vervult als verbinder een brugfunctie tussen onderzoek en samenleving. Werken bij NWO is heel divers. Voor een programmacoördinator bijvoorbeeld varieert dat van het schrijven van een call tot het bijdragen aan de toepassing van wetenschappelijk onderzoek. Als financial adviseer en ondersteun je de interne organisatie professioneel en klantgericht bij financiële vraagstukken. Als IT'er draag je bij aan de digitale transitie van NWO waarbij we een volledig nieuw digitaal fundament gaan realiseren en de Agile werkwijze binnen de IT-afdeling adopteren.

Bevlogen collega’s

Het belangrijkste in ons werk is het bevorderen van onderzoek en het vergroten van wetenschappelijke en maatschappelijke impact. Dat valt en staat natuurlijk met de inzet, kwaliteit, bevlogenheid en diversiteit van onze medewerkers. We zijn trots dat we in een inclusieve omgeving werken waarin alle medewerkers hun talenten kunnen ontwikkelen; op welk gebied dan ook!

Werken bij NWO betekent werken in een omgeving waarin iedereen een passie heeft voor wetenschap. Via bijeenkomsten, georganiseerde lunches of borrels blijven we op de hoogte van elkaars werk en zoeken we de verbinding op.

Zullen we kennismaken?

Lijkt het je leuk om nog meer te weten te komen over het werk bij NWO en om collega’s te ontmoeten? Dan nodigen we je graag uit voor onze Meet & Greet op donderdag 15 juni aanstaande. De Meet & Greet vindt plaats op onze locatie in Utrecht tussen 14.00 en 17.30 uur.

Aanmelden

Meld je aan via het formulier op deze website: https://www.nwo.nl/meet-and-greet

Academia

Q&A with researchers in industry 10 May

Do you know what you would like to do after your PhD or postdoc?

To help you exploring your career options outside academia, this time we interview two researchers who continued their career in industry. During this live Question & Answer session you have the chance to ask questions and get a better understanding of your possibilities.

During this 45-minutes Q&A (10 May, 17:00) we cover:

  • what it is like to work as a researcher in industry

  • what kind of research our guests do

  • advice on how to get a position outside academia

Registration is free. We have a maximum of 150 participants. Looking forward to meeting you!

Academia

AMOLF PhD’s & Postdocs Open Day, April 24

  • #biologicalsciences
  • #chemistry
  • #engineering
  • #physics
  • #technology

Are you looking for a PhD or Postdoc position?

Would you like to advance the solar cells of the future, design soft robotic hearts that don’t harm patients, discover how immune cells recognize cancer cells, or learn from bacteria to build more efficient computers? Then a PhD or postdoc at AMOLF may be for you. AMOLF is the Dutch National Institute for the physics of functional complex matter, located in the centre of Amsterdam. We conduct world-leading research to solve the most pressing challenges of our time in a collaborative and supportive atmosphere.

At the Open Day you have the chance to visit AMOLF virtually, learn about the projects that are available, and directly interact with your potential future supervisor. The Virtual Open Day takes place online, on Monday April 24th at 3PM. You can register for the event here. Too late? Explore our positions here.

What to expect

In this online event you will get a chance to explore the working environment at AMOLF. We will start with an introduction by our director, followed by brief talks by AMOLF students explaining what it is like do a PhD or postdoc here. Then you will have a chance to ask questions about the available projects directly to the AMOLF group leaders, and to further explore what it is like to work at AMOLF.

For whom?

The event is targeted at potential PhD students and postdocs with a background in physics, chemistry or engineering. We encourage people from all over the world to participate. AMOLF offers a highly international and collaborative working environment. The projects immediately available can be seen via the navigation menu, but we also welcome participants who wish to inform themselves about AMOLF with the perspective to apply for future openings.

You can register for the event here. Too late? Explore our positions here.

Academia

Diverse career perspectives for academics

  • #biologicalsciences
  • #medicalsciences
  • #neurosciences
  • #psychologicalsciences
  • #sociology

Date & time: Monday, May 8th, from 12:00 to 18:00
Location: The Utrecht University Hall (‘Academiegebouw’) near Utrecht Central station

Event information:

Dear young researchers in Brain, Cognition and Behavior,

Young NeurolabNL is glad to announce our third event: “Diverse career perspectives for academics”. Mark your calendars for May 8th, in the Utrecht University Hall (‘Academiegebouw’) in Utrecht at a stone’s throw from the Central station. Join us for an afternoon that will bring together academics working in university and other professionals working in non-academic sectors. There will be enriching panel discussions and two interactive workshop sessions led by professional coaches: “Find your compass” and “Keys to finding work-life balance”. In addition, you will be able to speed-date with the speakers and get feedback on your CV. Afterwards, there will be drinks and we will all have ample time and opportunities for networking. See you in May!

This event is aimed at assistant professors, postdocs and senior phd students.

Registration and participation in this event are free, but sign up soon because there are a limited number of spots (registration closes on April 23rd).

Click here for further information, event agenda and registration.

Bedrijfsleven

Virtual Event – BCG’s PhD Lunch & Learn

  • #computerscience
  • #economics
  • #environmentalscience
  • #informationscience
  • #technology

May 23rd, 2023 (12:00-13:00 (CEST)) Virtual

Are you ready to take your career beyond?

You’ve always been the one who takes on the extra challenge, the extra credit, and the extraordinary opportunities. You’ve always been the person who grows and flourishes through intellectual diversity. We can help you take your next step in a career that will surpass the status quo. We’re looking for people like you, with advanced degrees, to help us make a different kind of impact. People who want to perform meaningful work with a greater purpose that delivers real value to society.

Pursuing a PhD used to mean an expected career path. At Boston Consulting Group (BCG), it’s anything but that. It’s taking your career beyond your academic achievements, surpassing your expectations. At BCG, your work and contributions make a difference from day one. You’ll join a multi-disciplinary team from diverse backgrounds, where your intellectual curiosity, creativity, and problem-solving skills make a valuable contribution to client projects at every stage of the journey.

On May 23, 2023, we welcome you to get to know our BCG consultants, hear about the possibilities we offer you and answer your questions about BCG and the opportunities available with strategy consulting. Don’t miss this opportunity to embark on a professional and personal journey that will take you beyond the expected. Sign up here today. For more information, contact Bess Balhuizen.

We look forward very much to meeting you!

Academia

Wageningen Graduate Schools Sandwich PhD programme

  • #agriculturalsciences
  • #biologicalsciences
  • #economics
  • #environmentalscience
  • #technology

The aim of the Wageningen Graduate Schools (WGS) Sandwich PhD Programme is capacity building: a way for the university to reach out to like-minded scientific institutes to build international scientific networks, to facilitate exchange and to reinforce the knowledge basis of these institutes.

Content of the programme

A sandwich PhD candidate spends the first part (around nine months) of the PhD project at Wageningen University. During this time the research proposal is expanded and a tailor-made education and training programme is started up. Where possible and applicable, research is also started.

The next thirty months are spent conducting research in the home country of the candidate under the supervision of a local supervisor who is also the copromotor. Sandwich PhD candidates have regular (online) contact with their supervisors at Wageningen University. Sandwich PhD candidates often return to Wageningen for short visits, and a Wageningen University supervisor will, during critical times of the research, visit the PhD candidate’s home institute.

After the research in the home country is finished, the candidate returns to Wageningen University to finish the PhD thesis, which takes approximately nine months. The local supervisor will act as copromotor at the graduation ceremony.

Information for candidates

The call for the WGS sandwich PhD programme opens once per year, usually in spring. The calls are published on this website. The WU sandwich scholarship is a personal grant. Applications are submitted by the intended promotor of a PhD project. Proposed PhD candidates should:

  • be suitable for achieving the aim of capacity building

  • have a convincing Curriculum Vitae for a PhD position at WU

  • have a strong motivation and an original and innovative research idea

  • fulfil the entry requirements of the WU PhD programme (recognised master diploma, English proficiency) and be a national from one of the selected countries for this programme

  • be employed at the home institute during the entire PhD trajectory.

To apply for a WGS sandwich PhD position, you will have to find a promotor from Wageningen University who will endorse your innovative research idea (list of chair groups and contact information can be found here) and would like to be your promotor. A promotor can submit one WGS sandwich PhD proposal per round. In addition, you will need to provide proof of commitment from your home institute.

Your intended promotor has to submit the application form plus all the required annexes (in one compiled file).

It is a plus if you remain employed at your home institute after completion of your PhD programme. If no clear link between you and your home institute exists, your application will not be taken into consideration.

Selection criteria

  • Collaboration WU and home institution
    Including quality and infrastructure of supervising groups, institutional support and quality of the relationship between home institute and WU.

  • Quality of the candidate
    Including motivation, CV and link with the home institute.

  • Quality of the proposal
    Including originality, clarity, feasibility, and strategic contribution to the WU graduate school and chair group(s).

Grant

The grant of the WGS sandwich PhD programme covers living allowance for a total of 18 months in Wageningen, (partial) travel costs of candidate and WU/local supervisors, visa application costs and use of facilities.

Wageningen University will ensure supervision, education and training. The education budget and the costs for printing the thesis are not included in the budget. The chair group at which candidates conduct their research are expected to pay these costs.

Click here for more information and application form. 

Academia

Researcher to keep an eye on: Alex Geurds awarded NWO Vici grant

  • #anthropology
  • #culturalstudies
  • #environmentalscience
  • #history
  • #sociology

Alex Geurds receives NWO Vici grant for investigating human-environmental engagement across Central America & Colombia

During pre-Columbian times, the Central American isthmus was marked by dynamic exchange and human mobility. Despite this, indigenous communities were archaeologically stable between AD 300 and the 16th-century Spanish colonisation, contrasting with the cycles of florescence and decline of neighbouring culture areas, including the Maya. Dr Alex Geurds was awarded an NWO Vici grant to investigate this stability and what this may mean for societal resilience today.

‘Ways of being in the world’

The project studies long-term ontological forms of human engagement with the surrounding world for the context of the southern Central American area and parts of Colombia and focuses on the period from AD 300 onwards. ‘The interest in these ‘ways of being in the world’ concerns various social science and humanities disciplines, and archaeology has also increasingly worked towards a methodology to identify relevant ontology proxies,’ Alex Geurds notes. ‘The project includes a comprehensive mapping of data that may help us to find patterns in how indigenous communities awarded significance to the surrounding world.’

The project will be anchored around three research avenues. ‘First of all, durable landscape modifications, such as earthworks and stonework; secondly, how the surrounding world is translated into an aesthetic experience on media such as polychrome pottery; and thirdly, how ethnographic and historical data can be collated to identify human-environmental engagement across the research area.’

Long-term understanding

Current society is deeply concerned about human impact on ecologies worldwide. ‘Archaeology holds the key to a long-term understanding of this human-environmental engagement, using a globally comparative perspective,’ Geurds explains. ‘However, at the same time, archaeology all too often takes a back seat in public discussions and policymaking. Partly, this is because long-term views of the past (equal to longer-term perspectives of the future) are seldom favoured by decision-makers.’

Geurds’ project aims to push up against this current sidelining of archaeology. ‘We plan to organise multiple local roundtables in the research area; and connect across the various nation-state boundaries to forge a new interregional perspective on long-term human-environmental histories.’

Risky proposal

It was a risky proposal. ‘I wanted to work with a group of people that focused on a conceptual subject that was very close to my own interest, involving, for example, carved stone, notions of monumentality, and a long-term diachronic perspective. This tended to result in a relatively open-ended proposal, one in which review committees might easily detect ‘holes’.’

Very much aware that the project proposal might not be accepted when he received the email, Geurds ended up staring at the unopened message for a bit. ‘I knew full well the message would either be a disappointment or provide a clear direction in my research agenda for the foreseeable future. I contemplated if I should bury my phone under the carpet or just face the music and read its contents. Obviously, it wasn’t much of a choice. It ended up being a thrilling moment, as they always are.’

Opportunities for talented academics: Team assemblance

With the awarded funding, Geurds will assemble a team of postdoctoral researchers and PhD candidates. ‘This is likely somewhat down the road still, but we should be complete and underway in the course of 2024. It’s a lovely occurrence for the Faculty of Archaeology also, as its financial health is to a significant degree dependent on securing these types of grants – without them, we wouldn’t be able to run a research-focused Faculty,’ he states. ‘It takes time and energy to craft these proposals, and there are no guarantees along the way, but if it works out, then it offers –otherwise scarce– opportunities for emerging academic talents; a unique environment to develop once research; and reinforcing Leiden University’s longstanding regional focus on Middle and South America overall.’

Keep an eye on Alex's project.

Image: copyright van Faculty of Archaeology Leiden University. Crocodilian stone sculpture (Colombia). Museo del Oro, Bogota.

Academia

Career advice podcast

AcademicTransfer offers career advice in short 5 to 8-minute bi-weekly podcasts. Listen to the first episode "5 do's and 5 don'ts when applying for a job". Managing director Jeroen Sparla will discuss how to prepare for a perfect job application in The Netherlands as a researcher. 

Academia

Research Project on the Future of the Labour Market receives 3.4 million euros

  • #economics
  • #engineering
  • #politicalsciences
  • #sociology
  • #technology

An international consortium led by Olaf van Vliet has been awarded an Horizon Europe grant of 3.4 million euros. The project investigates how global challenges such as migration, digitalisation, and the green transition have transformed the labour market and the consequences of these changes for social security and political preferences.

Our labour market is subject to change. In some sectors, automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have led to fewer jobs and a decrease in the demand for labour. At the same time, the green transition has created new jobs, including in the sustainability sector. For instance, there is growing demand for heath pump technicians. ‘Work changes and this creates mobility in the labour market,’ explains Principal Investigator and Professor Olaf van Vliet, ‘but the labour market is not always there yet and that is when we see a rise in labour shortages in certain sectors.’ In this context, labour migration is often mentioned as a possible solution, though it remains a politically sensitive issue.

Focus on three main questions

Co-applicant Eduard Suari-Andreu: ‘In this multidisciplinary research project, named TransEuroWorks, we will focus on three main questions. How do migration, digitalisation, and the green transition, such as the phasing out of fossil energy sources, impact the labour market in Europe? How can the EU and its member states become more resilient and responsive to these changes? And what are the implications for European citizens’ well-being  and social protection?’

In other words: how do we create an inclusive, proactive welfare state that is prepared for the labour market of the future—a welfare state in which the negative effects are cushioned by social protection and in which the advantages are equally distributed?

Interdisciplinary research

Alongside various European universities and think tanks (see box), several societal organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) will also be collaborating in the project. The team in Leiden, an initiative resulting from the Social Citizenship and Migration programme, will mainly focus on the effects of the increasing labour mobility and its interaction with social protection policies. In addition to Olaf van Vliet and Eduard Suari Andreu, the research group includes Daniel Alves Fernandes, Zeynep Balcioglu Tasma, Anna-Lena Nadler, and Briitta van Staalduinen. The research group is also part of the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre on the Governance of Migration and Diversity. The TU Delft is also participating in TransEuroWorks by conducting research on the labour market effects of the green transition. According to Van Vliet, the participation of both Leiden University and the TU Delft helps to strengthen the bonds between the two universities within the framework of the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus alliance.

Find more news and events about the programma here: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/social-citizenship-and-migration

Text: Margriet van der Zee