Well-attended theme workshops ‘Recognition and Rewards’ yield a wealth of inspiration
NWO-I is actively participating in the national movement ‘Recognition and Rewards (R&R)’. The aim of this movement is to stop assessing researchers solely on the basis of their research results and publications and to also include tasks in the areas of education, impact, leadership and - specifically for the NWO Institutes - the national role. In a series of workshops, the NWO-I-wide committee on Recognition & Rewards discussed the new opinions about and the draft vision for recognition and rewards with colleagues from all institutes. This first workshop on 23 November was about ’impact’ and ‘the national role’. In the following workshops, the themes ‘research’, ‘education’ and ‘leadership’ formed the focus.
The NWO-I approach
NWO-I has previously appointed the NWO-I committee on Recognition & Rewards. This committee is made up of representatives from all institutes, scientific levels and staff, governance layers, and supporting departments. Over the past year, the committee has worked on formulating an NWO-I-wide vision for Recognition and Rewards. In the draft version of this vision document, the committee explains the ambition of the change in culture and the importance of this for NWO-I. It also presents an in-depth perspective on the vision with recommendations for each of the themes: research, education, leadership, impact and the national role. Now that the draft vision is almost completed, the committee is bringing it to the attention of colleagues. The dialogue sessions with them must bring to light what NWO-I employees think about recognition and rewards and, more specifically, the draft vision. This dialogue took place in a series of workshops, each of which was aimed at one or two core themes. External moderator Desiree Hoving led the discussions.
Workshops
On 23 November 2021, 70 colleagues from all institutes discussed the themes ‘impact’ and ‘national role’. How can you make a positive impact on society or the world as a researcher? Does this bring to mind economic or social impact or influence via policy development? Those present had different opinions about the kinds of tasks with which they realise impact and the fair reward for these. There was also a lively discussion about the contribution of institutes and researchers to strengthening the Dutch research landscape and the position of the Netherlands in international science. One of the conclusions was that impact is difficult to measure and is often not rewarded enough. Institutes should give employees more opportunity to take on tasks in the area of impact and the national role, and this should also be part of the individual evaluations of employees, according to the participants.
One of the starting questions of the workshop about the theme ‘research’ was: ‘Which words come to mind first when you think about ‘recognition and rewards?’. Among the 63 participants, the most prevalent answers were outreach, diversity and promotion. In breakout rooms, they subsequently discussed questions such as ‘What are the traditional ways in which we recognise research and how can we improve this?’ and ‘How do the research activities of NWO-I differ from those of the universities and how should these be correspondingly rewarded?’. One conclusion was that collaboration should be highlighted more instead of competition. ‘Team science above individuals’ and ‘less bureaucracy in the assessment’ were other wishes that emerged from the exchange.
In the workshop about education and leadership, with 43 participants, one question was ‘Which tasks do you have that are linked to leadership, and how do you want to see those rewarded?’. The answers to this question ranged from ‘offer specific training courses’ to ‘increase the opportunities for employees to take on leadership tasks’.
Broad representation
After the first workshop, the committee perceived that a broad group of employees from all institutes had participated. The participants were, for example, PhDs, postdocs and senior researchers and, in addition to scientific staff, also colleagues from support departments. In the subsequent workshops, yet other colleagues took part. Some also took part in more than one workshop. The committee counted a total of 115 unique participants.
Next steps
Project leader Laura Jussen, policy officer at the NWO-I office, is pleased about the outcomes of the workshops. Jussen: ‘I am very pleased with the number of participants, and especially with their involvement. I found the sessions and discussions very inspiring. It was great to have an open exchange with colleagues about the vision. The sessions were lively, with constructive discussions, and the participants also had many concrete ideas and recommendations. The outcomes are most valuable for the committee. We are now working hard to incorporate all contributions into the draft vision so that we can submit this to all governance levels at the start of next year. After that, the implementation trajectory will begin, and the vision with recommendations will form the basis for this. Then things will really start.’
Would you still like to share your input?
If you could not participate in a workshop, but you have ideas that you would like to share with the committee, then please send these to CommitteeRecognitionRewards@nwo-i.nl. You can also directly contact the chair of the committee Michael Wise (m.wise@sron.nl), project leader Laura Jussen (l.jussen@nwo-i.nl), or the other members of the committee (for the full list of members please see the NWO-I website : More background information about the Recognition & Rewards movement, the position paper, visions from other knowledge institutions, and discussions can be found on the special national website established for this: https://recognitionrewards.nl/
Newsletter Inside NWO-I, December 2021