Amendments commuting expenses regulation with effect from 1 July 2020

As you know, our Implementation Regulations (IR) contain an amended commuting expenses regulation that will become effective on 1 July 2020. This regulation focuses on encouraging sustainable travel. However, due to the current coronavirus crisis this is not a good moment to implement this new regulation because travel with public transport is not encouraged at present. Furthermore, it is expected that in the coming period, journeys will be made with variable patterns of travel and with differing means of transport.

Jan van der Boon director of operations NWO-I

With effect from 1 September 2020, Jan van der Boon will be director of operations for the Institutes Organisation of NWO. Together with the director of NWO-I, who has yet to be appointed, he will realise the new governance model chosen for NWO-I that will form the basis for the further development of the Institutes Organisation.

Marco de Baar appointed new director NWO institute DIFFER

The board of the Institutes Organisation of NWO has appointed Prof. Marco de Baar as director of DIFFER, the Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research, for a period of two years. With effect from mid-2020, he will succeed Prof. Richard van de Sanden, who will continue to work at the institute as DIFFER group leader in the theme Solar Fuels.

Highlight NSCR: social distancing in the public space - do people keep to the rules?

NSCR-criminologist/anthropologist Marie Rosenkrantz Lindegaard investigates with the University of Amsterdam, the Amsterdam Police and the Municipality of Amsterdam where and how people violate the social distancing rules during the coronavirus crisis. They analysed with video artificial intelligence and systematic behavioural coding the 24/7 images from 55 security cameras in Amsterdam. The initial results, which are shared publicly every week via media and the fact sheet “1.5 Barometer”, reveal that people behaved well. The aim of the research is to investigate how citizens and law enforcers can maintain social rules in the public space.

DIFFER project leader Beata Tyburska-Pueschel about the ion beam facility

Polish-born experimental physicist Beata Tyburska-Pueschel found a close symbiosis between industry and university at the accelerator lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As the new project leader of the Ion Beam Facility at DIFFER, she now wants to open up the laboratory to outside users and introduce that same culture of “giving back”.

NIOZ investigates seafoam following surfing drama

On the evening of 11 May 2020, five surfers died off the coast of Scheveningen. The question quickly arose as to whether it was the strikingly thick layer of seafoam that made the surfers unwell or suffocated them. NIOZ researcher Katja Philippart does not have an answer to this. However now, together with colleagues from other institutes, she will try to determine under which conditions the foam can develop in such large quantities. Was there an exceptional situation on 11 May with respect to the concentration of foam algae, the timing of the algal bloom, or the hard wind, or was it a combination of these factors?

News from the Central Works Council

The Central Works Council of NWO (COR NWO) has now met online for the second time and we have found a good way of working. For example, COR NWO has received a request for approval for the appointment of a new central health & safety coordinator. Furthermore, we are continuing to share our thoughts about the deployability of NWO employees during the coronavirus crisis and, together with the employer, we took another good look at the Implementing Regulation (IR) Commuting expenses.

About NWO-I

NWO-I, the Institutes Organisation of NWO, is an independent foundation belonging to NWO. The following nine institutes are part of NWO-I: AMOLF, ARCNL, ASTRON, CWI, DIFFER, Nikhef, NIOZ, NSCR and SRON. The 200-plus workgroups in which physics research takes place at Dutch universities and knowledge institutes are also part of NWO-I.

Contact

NWO-I
www.nwo-i.nl
info-nwoi@nwo-i.nl
(030) 600 12 11

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