Good Practices
Recognition and Rewards covers a wide range of topics - from leadership to open science, from diversity in career paths to making everyone's contribution to the success of a project visible. Within NWO-I, much is already happening in the field of Recognition and Appreciation - partly formally in the P&O field, but to a large extent also informally and not always under this heading.
Wide range of practices
Below we have selected a few examples of how Recognition and Rewards is expressed within NWO-I. Some examples seem simple and may be quickly overlooked. In other cases, it is a solution specific to one institute, or even one person. They may be bottom-up initiatives, or top-down policies, or a mix of the two.
What these good practices have in common is that they stem from a conscious desire to achieve better cooperation, and create conditions in which everyone thrives.
LMPV Team (AMOLF)
The Light Management in New Photovoltaic Materials (LMPV) team was created to be greater than the sum of its parts. The five group leaders each bring their own complementary expertise within different disciplines and over the past decade have formed a team that has cross-disciplinary collaboration in its DNA. The team is diverse not only in terms of expertise but also in terms of gender, nationality, background, personality and skills. In 2023, the team won the NWO Team Science Prize. The team also developed a detailed diversity policy that served as inspiration for AMOLF’s diversity policy.
PhD Council (NIOZ)
PhD students have shared interests and face different kinds of problems than other staff members within an institute. This is why PhD students within NIOZ decided to join forces and ensure that their voices are (also) heard directly at management level. In the council, they share their experiences and put issues on the agenda to bring about improvements. They thus form a bridge between PhD students and NIOZ management. One of the first results in the council's short existence is the implementation of more and renewed training courses for PhD students.
Finance Day (NWO-I-wide)
Staff from the financial domain, both at the bureau and the institutes, were coming out of a busy period, in which hard work had been done but in which they felt less connected than desired. After completing a number of large projects, it was decided to celebrate the hard work of everyone involved with a day out, as a token of appreciation. All those involved were invited, including staff from other departments who had also contributed to the projects. The result was a successful day with a high turnout and enthusiastic reactions afterwards. After this day, (finance) staff know how to find their colleagues at other institutes and the bureau better.
Want to know more?
Want to know more about these or other good practices collected by NWO-I's R&R Team? Contact the R&R Project Leader within NWO-I, Thecla van Wageningen ( t.vanwageningen@nwo-i.nl )
Do you have a good practice of your own that you would like to share? We'd love to hear from you!
Curious how R&R is implemented at your institute? Contact your P&O manage or your institute's R&R committee member.