Spotlight on the University Workgroups (BUW)

Of the 1737 employees at NWO-I, 75 people form a somewhat invisible group: they are part of the Administrative Unit University Research Groups (BUW). The 75 young researchers, spread across nearly all Dutch universities, are all in the process of completing their physics research. Within a few years from now, the last PhD candidate or postdoc will close the door behind them at BUW. However, before the door closes for the last time, this issue of Inside NWO-I devotes attention to this unusual form of employership within NWO-I.

Latest P&O news

At the end of April P&O NWO-I published various news items. First of all, a new commuter costs regulation to encourage sustainable travel will come into force from 1 July 2022 onwards. Furthermore, NWO-I now provides facilities for setting up a home office. This means that home office furniture (desk, office chair and lighting) will be facilitated and/or reimbursed. In addition to this facility, the working from home remuneration of two euros per day, which was introduced during the coronavirus crisis, will be retained. Finally, there is news about the collective labour agreement (CAO). On 16 February 2022, the parties concerned started the CAO negotiations about a new CAO for the research institutes.

Highlight Nikhef: Dutch government embraces plans for Einstein Telescope in South Limburg border region

On 14 April 2022, the Dutch government announced its intention to award 42 million euros from the National Growth Fund to the Einstein Telescope. In addition, it will reserve 870 million euros for the future Dutch contribution to the construction of the telescope. This places the Netherlands in an excellent position to put itself forward as a candidate in 2024/2025 and, together with Belgium and Germany, accommodate the underground observatory for the measurement of gravitational waves in the border region of South Limburg. Nikhef director Stan Bentvelsen, one of the parties in the plans, is enthusiastic: ‘With this decision, the Dutch government puts the Netherlands in the global vanguard for research into gravitational waves. I have every confidence that we will satisfy the additional conditions for the award.’

New personnel system for NWO-I

NWO-I will soon introduce a new personnel system: Youforce. In this system, the NWO-I office and the nine NWO Institutes will harmonise their P&O work processes, and that will result in a single support system for all organisational units. Youforce will also replace the current application NWO-I People, and the salary slip and self-service processes for employees will be made available via Youforce.

New institute manager at DIFFER: Martin van Breukelen

On 1 July 2022, Martin van Breukelen will become the institute manager of NWO Institute DIFFER in Eindhoven. He previously managed the stable isotopes lab of the Netherlands Forensic Institute, and he was the point of contact for the HFML-FELIX research facility in Nijmegen for the past eleven years. One of the things that Martin would like to do at DIFFER is to increasingly open up the facilities for guest researchers.

Update process NWO strategy

We last reported about the NWO strategy 2022-2026 developments in the March edition of Inside NWO-I. Now the final phase has been reached: at the end of April, the NWO Executive Board read the first draft text of the new strategy. Parallel to this, the directors of the NWO Institutes, the domain boards, temporary task forces and steering groups gave their feedback on the text. Subsequently, the final text, including the draft multiannual budget, was discussed with the NWO Executive Board in mid-May.

Sharing privacy-friendly data really is high-level mathematics

In a data-driven society, the protection of confidential and personal data is a major public good. Cryptologist Thomas Attema, TNO researcher and CWI PhD candidate, focuses on mathematical work in this area. In February 2022, an interview with him was published in the online magazine TNO Insights (in Dutch). ‘At TNO, we tackle problems that are relevant to society and we try to solve these by applying new, innovative technologies. Thanks to my collaboration with CWI, I am able to work on the underlying theoretical and mathematical issues in collaboration with one of the best cryptologists in the world. This allows me to strike a perfect balance between theory and practice.’

NWO celebrates... World Autism Awareness Day

Over the past year, the section ‘NWO celebrates…’ has devoted attention to the celebration or remembrance of many different (festive) days. In this ‘NWO celebrates…’, we look back at World Autism Awareness Day, which took place on 2 April 2022 and also marked the start of the Autism Week in the Netherlands. Colleague Marc Martens from I&A had already spotted the day in our annual calendar last year. He tells us why this day matters to him personally.

NWO-I provides web accessibility for people with disabilities

Millions of Dutch people have one or more disabilities. Examples are people with reduced vision, persons who are deaf or hard of hearing, and people with physical or motor disabilities or dyslexia. Therefore, the Dutch government has determined by law that everybody must be able to use the websites of public institutions such as NWO-I and the NWO Institutes. That is sometimes referred to as digital accessibility. The NWO Institutes and the NWO-I office have started making the www.nwo-i.nl and the institute websites digitally accessible by modifying documents, images, sound, technology and design so that these sites can be opened, listened to and viewed without any hindrances. Indeed, everybody benefits from these kind of improvements. As an employee, you can also contribute to this effort.

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.nl
(030) 600 12 11

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