New team at the helm of NWO-I: who are the directors Miriam Luizink and Jan van der Boon?

A joint task

NWO-I must become more effective and agile and the NWO Institutes need an ambassador that represents the interests of the institutes externally, the NWO Executive Board concluded at the end of 2019. In close consultation with the directors of the nine institutes, it was decided to modify the governance of NWO-I: instead of just one director, as had been the case up until then, two new directors’ positions were created between the Executive Board and the institutes. On 1 September 2020, Jan van der Boon started as director of operations and Miriam Luizink became director of NWO-I on 1 October. In this role, Luizink is responsible for the general management and strategic positioning of the portfolio of the institutes. She is the line manager of the institute directors. The conviction is that as an ambassador, Luizink will bridge the gap between the institutes and the NWO Executive Board. She meets with the Executive Board once every two weeks. As director of operations of NWO-I, Van der Boon chairs the meetings of the institute managers. He is also responsible for managing a large part of the NWO-I office. The allocation of tasks between Luizink and Van der Boon is clearly delineated. Nevertheless, both consider the new management of NWO-I to be first and foremost a joint task. ‘We genuinely wish to operate as one team’, says Luizink.

Researchers

Until her move to NWO-I, applied physicist Luizink was director of Roessingh Research and Development, a multidisciplinary research centre that focuses on the development of innovations for rehabilitation and chronic care. She had previously worked at KPN Research and MESA+, the research institute for nanotechnology at the University of Twente. While working for KPN, she lived in Costa Rica for two years. Luizink also helped to shape NanoLabNL. Luizink: ‘Working closely with researchers, people who know their own discipline really well and are focused on questions instead of answers, has always been the golden thread throughout my career. That is very inspiring. In my jobs, and also in selection committees and juries, I have seen a broad spectrum of research: from nanotechnology to rehabilitation technology, where the former is more fundamental and technical in nature and the latter is closer to society. I have a lot of experience with valorisation, which ensures that the results of research are more widely used in society. And it is this expertise that I bring to NWO-I. I was already familiar with the Institutes Organisation of NWO because of my work as an SRON board member. And I’m honoured that I have been selected for this position as director.’

New horizon

Why did legal expert Van der Boon make the switch to NWO-I, even though he had already worked at Leiden University as director of operations and enjoyed doing so for 15 years? Van der Boon says that a new horizon seemed attractive. He has always worked in operational management related to education and research: first at NWO, then at CERN, next in Brussels as a liaison for Dutch science with the European Union and, finally, at Leiden University. ‘I did not have to think twice about the offer from NWO-I’, laughs Van der Boon. ‘NWO-I is that fantastic, dynamic organisation of national institutes with large facilities and interesting people.’

Spider in the web

Luizink’s and Van der Boon’s task is the further collective development of NWO-I. What does that entail? Luizink aims to help the individual institutes to work closer together and to get to know the benefits of jointly forming NWO-I. Luizink: ‘Examples are: sharing knowledge, collaborating in deploying initiatives or tackling certain thematic subjects, such as the climate. Several institutes are active in the area of climate. Is it possible for us to develop a joint programme for that? Another aspect is the use of key enabling technologies, which solve societal challenges and offer a “key” to new innovations that society demands.’ Van der Boon believes that the differences between the institutes are emphasised too much and that there are actually considerable similarities, even between the institutes which initially appear to have the least in common: ‘Each of them is a spider in the web, both as a national facility and in how they collaborate with the universities.’

Highly impressed

Luizink’s role also involves making the institutes aware of trends, future developments in the field and their national and international role within research areas. This involves realising external connections as well, such as with the KNAW institutes and universities so that, in the future, more impact can be created through the joint setting of the research agenda. After her first month, Luizink is very enthusiastic about NWO-I: ‘During my virtual tour of the institutes, I was highly impressed by the broad range of top research. I am already very proud of this, even though I’ve only just started. I hope that I can contribute to the institutes proudly conveying that they are NSCR or ASTRON, and part of NWO as well.’

Ongoing projects

Van der Boon faces several concrete challenges in the operational management. Many things are going well, but he observes that there is also overdue maintenance. During a team building day, Van der Boon got to know the institute managers: ‘They are strong-minded and very committed to their institute but at the same time incredibly motivated to jointly move forwards. My leitmotiv is “excellent science deserves excellent support”, and this is the spirit in which I’d like to work with my new colleagues. Through operational management, I make sure that scientists can do their research as well and as easily as possible. We cannot make it any pleasanter, is what I sometimes say. Certain things have to be done according to the rules, but in addition to that there is a playing field that I gain my energy from. Considerable benefits can be achieved through collaboration. I now contribute to various ongoing projects, such as the implementation of the NWO-I-wide project New Financial System. At present, there are still five different systems, which is a crime from the perspective of efficiency. Another example is the maintenance plan. Of course, the specific requirements for a building for maritime research are not the same as those for Nikhef, where they build equipment. But having said that, producing a maintenance plan requires specific skills. From my work at CERN and Leiden, I know which sensibilities you need to take into account within a scientific organisation. I’d like to reduce the distance between operations and research. One such example is the support for research projects funded by NWO or the EU throughout the chain, from application and legal aspects of collaboration with other research industries or private partners through to the settling of accounts by the accountant. High-quality operational management can play a significant role in that. In Leiden, we did that via the programme “Leiden Research Support” and I would like to realise something similar for the NWO Institutes.’

Coronavirus fund

A major task that Luizink and Van der Boon are immediately getting their teeth into is the realisation of a coronavirus fund. The NWO Executive Board has made six million euros available to solve the problems that arose due to the coronavirus. The first priority is supporting PhDs and postdocs who have incurred delays because equipment or labs were not available or because they could not travel abroad. Luizink: ‘We are helping the direst cases with a contract extension so that they can catch up on the delays incurred.’ The institutes will be compensated for the costs of such extensions.

Hybrid form

Both directors are busy with formulating policy for once the coronavirus crisis is behind us. In the medium term, this means focusing on other forms of collaboration as a result of which people can continue to work in a motivated manner. Van der Boon explains: ‘We must remain alert for the increasing fatigue among people who work from home.’ In the long term, NWO-I wants to do several things more smartly than it did before the coronavirus crisis. Van der Boon: ‘We will not go back to working at the office five days per week, from 9 to 5. The idea is to retain the advantages of working from home. We are aiming for a hybrid form of working from home and at the office.’ Luizink and Van der Boon are considering a combination of a policy applicable to NWO-I in its entirety and recommendations to the institutes. Van der Boon: ‘As NWO-I, you need to do several things together, such as organising facilities and remuneration for working from home. At the same time, the institutes will adopt their own measures that are related to the nature of the work or research they do. However, it is clear that we will need less office accommodation in the future, and we will take the time to carefully consider the implications of this.’

Who is Miriam Luizink?

Miriam Luizink (1974) lives in her hometown of Enschede, with her husband, son (19) and daughter (16). She studied applied physics at the University of Twente. Luizink is a member of various supervisory boards of companies and organisations active in the area of technology and innovation. An exception to this is her membership of the supervisory board of Phion, orchestra of Gelderland & Overijssel. Luizink loves to be outdoors a lot: ‘I prefer to make simple phone calls while walking.’ She likes camping, sailing and reading. Four years ago, she started to play the saxophone. ‘However, I'm not available for the NWO-I band’, she says, laughing.

Who is Jan van der Boon?

Jan van der Boon (1960) lives in Haarlem with his wife. They have three children, two daughters (28 and 33) and a son (31), who have all left home. Van der Boon studied law at Leiden University. He has several ancillary functions such as chairing the supervisory board of the Leiden school for instrument makers: ‘The best vocational college in the Netherlands’. He is also chair of the employers’ delegation of the Accountability Body of the pension fund ABP. Van der Boon likes to spend time with his family. He is a fervent reader of literature and books about history. ‘I’m pretty fit: on a Monday evening you can find me at the sports club and in the summer, I go hiking in the mountains.’

Newsletter Inside NWO-I, December 2020
Text: Anita van Stel