LNVH Newsletter February 2017

LNVH News

Ambassador network
LNVH proudly presents its ambassadors: all are committed to our mission and support us in achieving our goals. In the ambassador network (currently only) men are united to actively contribute to the promotion of women to top positions in academia. Curious about our ambassadors? See the list on our website.

Westerdijk Year
‘For fine minds, the art is to mix work and parties.’ This was the motto of Johanna Westerdijk, the Netherlands’ first female professor. On 10 February, we marked the one hundredth anniversary of her inaugural lecture as professor. If you were unable to attend this afternoon event or would like a reminder, we have a detailed report and video here. The event kicked off Westerdijk Year. What other ‘Westerdijk activities’ have been planned? You’ll find a roundup here.

General news

Administering the ‘Appoint 100 new female professors’ scheme
During the event kicking off Westerdijk Year, the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Jet Bussemaker, announced that NWO would be administering the funding scheme to appoint 100 new female professors. Universities that would like to apply for funding under the scheme are invited to submit their application to NWO starting 1 April 2017. The Government will help cover the additional cost of the appointees salary for the first five years; thereafter, the universities must finance the new professorships themselves. The funding scheme comes on top of earlier agreements concerning the appointment of 200 new female professors by 2020. See here for more information.

'Women in Academia’ factsheet by the Rathenau Institute
In honour of Westerdijk Year, the Rathenau Institute published a factsheet on 10 February on 'Women in Academia’. The factsheet explores the appointment of female professors, associate professors and assistant professors, with the number of appointments being related to candidate availability. Academics also leave the university at a certain point, however. If there are gender patterns in that context, that may help explain the extremely slow progress of women in academia. The factsheet focuses on the relationship between availability, appointments and departure. The complete factsheet is available here.

NWO: VICI awards
NWO recently announced the names of the VICI grant recipients. Thirty-four researchers will receive a grant worth € 1.5 million from NWO. The purpose of the grant is to support recipients in their research over the next five years and to assist them in building their own research group. VICI is one of the largest grants awarded to individual researchers in the Netherlands and part of NWO’s Talent Scheme (Vernieuwingsimpuls). Of the 34 recipients, 12 are women, and a number of these are members of the LNVH network. We’d like to extend our congratulations on their award! Curious to know who won? You’ll find the list of names here.

KNCV Gold Medal
Every year the Royal Dutch Chemical Society (KNCV) awards the KNCV Gold Medal to young researchers who have distinguished themselves in the field of chemical research in the broadest sense. See the KNCV website for more information.

ZonMW: report on ‘More focus on male-female differences in health care research’
Programme and policy staff at the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) met with collaborating health fundraising organisations and NWO on 3 February to discuss the importance of considering sex and gender in research, the role research funding bodies can play in this regard, and what we would gain by focusing more on male-female differences in health care research. The outcomes of the meeting can be found in this report.

WOMEN Inc: Limited View
WOMEN Inc. recently presented a new report entitled ‘Beperkt zicht: de rol van mediamakers in beeldvorming’ (‘Limited view: the role of media producers in image portrayal’). The report shows that the Dutch media often play an unintentional but important role in increasing the level of social inequality and polarisation in the Netherlands. While media producers are more aware of their ‘bias’ than the average person, that awareness does not appear to influence how they portray society. For example, women and ethnic minorities are underrepresented in the media. The media want to tackle stereotyping, but are largely clueless as to how to go about it. The WOMEN Inc. report argues that media organisations must put diversity at the core of their policy. They must also pay much more notice to ‘bias’ and image portrayal in university journalism programmes. More information

Technology Tournament: jury members wanted
Techniekpromotie is a national network that wants to promote optimal child development by acquainting every child with science and technology from their very first year of primary school. One way it does this is by organising the Technology Tournament, an annual event for primary school pupils of all ages. Pupils work on competing technical projects at school. A jury of professors reviews the national finalists on 1 June. The organisers would like a more gender-balanced jury and are looking to recruit female professors to sit on the jury. If you are interested in becoming a jury member, please contact Annet Jeucken. 

Appointments  

• Roberta D’Alessandro has been appointed as Professor Syntax and Language Variation at Utrecht University.
• Renate de Groot is appointed as Full Professor Biopsychology of Learning at the Welten Institute, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Open University of the Netherlands.
• The Board of NWO has appointed Professor Carole Jackson as General and Scientific Director of ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy.
• Monicque Lorist has been named professor of Psychology at the University of Groningen.
• Manon Ruijters has been appointed Professor of Learning, Development and Behavioral Change at VU University Amsterdam.
• Linda Steg has been appointed to the Supervisory Board of the University of Twente for a four-year term. She is replacing departing member Professor Janka Stoker.
• Felisa Tibbitts has been named professor in human rights education at Utrecht University. Maartje van der Woude has been appointed as visiting professor at the Department of Criminology & Sociology of Law Department of Criminology at the University of Oslo in Norway. The appointment will have a duration of three years.

Attending and participating

Many different organisers are once again planning a broad spectrum of events to mark International Women’s Day. If you would like to explore local events, click here for listings by city.

RightBrains is organising an inspiring movie night on 8 March with a preview of the film Hidden Figures. The evening is meant to inspire talented young women at the start of their careers and help them prepare for their digital future. It is also meant to do away with the stereotype that girls are unsuited for maths and the sciences. More information

Tilburg University is organising the Gender Unlimited Festival on 8 March. Working under the slogan ‘Quality Includes Diversity’, Chancellor Emile Aarts will introduce the laureates of the Philip Eijlander Diversity Programme, Tilburg University’s prestigious scheme for creating extra senior-level positions for talented women. The Gender Unlimited Festival aims to raise awareness of the importance of gender equality and diversity. More information

On 18 March, the Dutch Society of Female Doctors (VNVA) will be organising the Corrie Hermann Prize Symposium, this time bearing the title 'Being a woman makes a difference’. The symposium will address differences between men and women suffering from inflammatory bowel disease. Awareness of this inequality between the sexes leads to a tailor-made management strategy, for example among women who are trying to have children, and will ultimately result in more cost-effective treatment. The Corrie Hermann Prize 2017 will be presented to Prof. Janneke van der Woude at the end of the symposium. More information

From 5 to 7 April 2017, CLUE+ -– the interdisciplinary research institute for the Humanities at VU University Amsterdam – will organise an international conference on the work of critical theoretician and philosopher Judith Butler. The conference is entitled ‘Critical Theory in the Humanities Resonances of the Work of Judith Butler’. Butler will give one of the keynote lectures and play an active role in the conference. More information

On 29 and 30 May, the European Women Rectors Association will organise its fifth European Women Rectors Conference. The theme this time is 'Pivoting on gender equality through the lens of leadership: policies, strategies and actions'. The conference will take place in Brussels. More information

The STEM Gender Equality Congress will take place in Berlin on 8 and 9 June. The event brings together researchers, policymakers, administrators and entrepreneurs to discuss how to change gender inequality in science and industry. More information

Vacancies and calls

Association of Universities in the Netherlands: President

Maastricht University: Director Maastricht Centre for Entrepreneurship / Professor of Entrepreneurship

Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study: Call for NIAS Fellowship Applications 2018/19

Radboud University Nijmegen: Full Professor of Communication Science and Artificial Intelligence

University of Groningen: Professor of American Studies
University of Groningen: Associate/Full Professor Optical Spectroscopy of Condensed Matter
University of Groningen: Associate/Full Professor Arts in Society

Tilburg University: Associate / Full Professor of Economics (with tenure)
Tilburg University: Full Professor of Organizational Psychology
Tilburg University: Full Professor of Sociology

University of Amsterdam: Professor Cellular and Computational Neuroscience

See the vacancies via Academic Transfer

Web information

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