Substantial increase in salary, a one-off payment and attention for diversity in the new CAO

At the end of July, the new collective labour agreement (CAO) was signed, which has a duration of one year. The most important agreements are that salaries will be structurally increased by 5% with effect from 1 September 2023, and with a further 2.25% with effect from 1 January 2024. In addition, each employee will receive a one-off maximum payment of 1500 euros. This will be paid out in proportion to the size of the employee’s appointment and the number of months in service prior to 1 September 2023. There will also be more attention for diversity: agreements have been made about the exchange of three public holidays to celebrate other religious festivals or commemorative days, leave for gender transition processes, informal care leave, bereavement leave and saving up leave to take a sabbatical.

NWO Institutes prepare for SEP evaluation

In the last quarter of this year, all nine NWO Institutes will receive an evaluation visit from a special committee. This so-called SEP evaluation (Strategy Evaluation Protocol) takes place once every six years. ‘It gives the institutes the opportunity to demonstrate what they do and, in particular, how they carry out their research. The evaluations help us to look ahead,’ says Peter Spijker, Head Strategic Support and Chair Management Team at the NWO-I Office. He explains the process.

Employee Survey (MOZ) on halt: restart to follow

On Monday 6 September, employees from the NWO Institutes and the NWO-I Office received an invitation from Effectory to participate in the Employee Survey (MOZ, Medewerkersonderzoek). Due to mistakes made in the response scale and formulation of the questions, NWO-I decided on Tuesday 7 September to put the entire survey on hold. NWO-I will restart the Employee Survey as soon as all of the problems have been resolved and extensive testing has been conducted. You will receive an email from us to inform you that the online questionnaire is available again. Everyone will be asked to complete the new version of the questionnaire, even if they completed the previous version. NWO-I deeply regrets this course of events, and we hope we can count on everyone's understanding in this matter.

Update governance and progress Development Operations NWO-I programme

It has been a while since NWO-I reported about its Development Operations programme. Meanwhile, due to the departure of the interim director of NWO-I/director of operations, a different situation has arisen in the governance of NWO-I. We will therefore update you on both matters in this issue of Inside NWO-I.

Highlight ASTRON: radio telescope Westerbork reveals cosmic secrets with gravitational waves

European astronomers, together with Indian and Japanese colleagues, have seen evidence for ultra-low-frequency gravitational waves, which are expected to originate from pairs of supermassive black holes found in the centres of merging galaxies. This is the result of more than 25 years of observations with the most sensitive radio telescopes in Europe and India, including the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) located at NWO Institute ASTRON in Dwingeloo. With this, they have opened a new window on gravitational wave research.

Register for the online ‘NWO Diversity Day lunch lecture’

This year, NWO will celebrate ‘Diversity Day’ by organising an online lunch lecture on Tuesday 3 October from 12:00 – 13:00 hours. Two speakers will discuss diversity and inclusion in the workplace as part of the theme ‘Differences enrich’. All NWO and NWO-I employees are welcome to join! The lecture is organised by Judith Kreukels (Project Manager Diversity & Inclusion NWO-I) and Anneke Bloemen (Project Manager Diversity and Inclusion, NWO-D).

Highlight AMOLF: how to make a block of rubber count to ten

A block of rubber that counts to ten and even remembers in which sequence it was compressed. Physicists Martin van Hecke and Lennard Kwakernaak (Leiden and AMOLF Amsterdam) share a fascination for complexity in simple objects. They wrote an article about a counting block of rubber, which they classify as a metamaterial, and published it in the journal Physical Review Letters.

NWO-I Management Report and Financial Statement 2022 online

The year 2022 was another successful year for the NWO Institutes. The development of very large research infrastructure for research, which they manage, was in full swing. For example, Nikhef received a large contribution from the National Growth Fund for the further development of the Einstein Telescope, ASTRON is working on the next upgrade of the world's largest radio telescope LOFAR, and DIFFER is committed to a new national infrastructure for materials for energy research. Read all about it in the report of 2022.

News from the works councils

Who represents your institute in the Central Works Council of NWO (COR NWO) and the Group Works Council of NWO-I (GOR NWO-I)? In June, new members started their work in both councils. In addition, the departure of Jan van der Boon means that the works councils must consult with a different Executive Board member from now on.

Calendar

Weekend of Science 2023

On 7 and 8 October the Weekend of Science (Weekend van de Wetenschap) takes place. On various locations in Holland you can take a look behind the...

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 workgroups in which physics research takes place at Dutch universities and knowledge institutes are also part of NWO-I.

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