Social safety project update

We are making good progress on several important sub-projects. In recent months, many colleagues have taken the Constructive Dialogue training course, we launched the digital and standardised annual review form — including useful tools to help employees and supervisors have truly productive conversations — and we continued to work on the further development of the central contact point.

Curious about what we have been doing recently? You can find our latest updates on this page. You can also see which themes have already been successfully completed, such as the development of a code of conduct for students, the research into team size & team formation, and a transparent sanctions policy. 

Themes for students and staff

  • Safe@RU contact point

    We are working on a Radboud-wide contact point for signals and reports of undesirable behaviour and integrity violations. The aim is to handle reports independently and transparently. The Safe@RU reporting protocol for undesirable behaviour and integrity was approved by the employee participation council in December 2025, after being discussed in various forums over the past few months. We are currently working on setting up the advice and reporting point. We are aligning ourselves as closely as possible with the existing help and support available within Radboud University. Preparations are in full swing and recruitment for the integrity officer will start shortly.

    The reporting centre will make it easy for staff and students to get in touch. A confidential advisor will listen, help you think things through and discuss possible next steps. The conversation is always confidential. As the person reporting the issue, you are in control: you decide whether to take further action. One of the options is to report the issue to the integrity officer. The integrity officer will look for an appropriate solution, advise on follow-up and ensure that the follow-up is carried out properly.

Themes for staff

  • Development modules

    We are investing in awareness, knowledge, and skills of employees and supervisors to encourage positive and professional behaviour and to prevent undesirable behaviour. In doing so, we strengthen an open and safe working environment. The development offering consists of e-learnings, trainings, and practical tools. Participation in part of this offering is expected of everyone; we call this the core offer. In addition, there is a recommended offer for those who want to deepen their understanding. 

    • Core offer 
      For all staff: 

      For managers: 

    • Additional: Recommended offer
      • Active Bystander Training
      • Cultural offering with lectures, theatre performances, and workshops
      • Modules in the online learning platform gROW for continuous development

    In October, we started the training for employees: Constructive dialogue. In 2025, 40 training courses took place, in which approximately 550 employees participated. In addition, more than 1,000 employees have now completed the social safety e-learning.

  • Improve and digitise annual reviews

    Over the past few months, work has been done to improve and digitise the annual reviews between employees and managers. The basic principle is that every employee has at least one annual review per year, with a structural focus on well-being, performance, and development.

    In November, the updated digital annual review form, including the associated process, was launched university-wide in BASS. This provides an accessible and uniform approach for all annual reviews within the university. The uniform form ensures that the most important topics of discussion are always covered, and that reports are recorded digitally. These are easy to find and remain transparent for both employees and supervisors.

    The new working method reduces the administrative burden, ensures greater uniformity, and better supports employees and supervisors in conducting and following up on annual reviews. To support this, conversation guides have been developed for the preparation, the review itself, and the follow-up. A knowledge clip is also available that explains the new working method.

    This innovation was developed in collaboration with colleagues from the organisation and has been well received so far. With this step, the university is investing in a good and open dialogue between employees and supervisors and has laid a university-wide foundation for valuable annual reviews.

     

  • Approach dependency in research supervision 

    We are working to increase safety in the relationship between PhD candidates and their supervisors. The aim is to reduce the risk of undesirable behaviour and to provide clarity about rights and expectations.

    To achieve this, the following priorities have been set, which the project team will work on. In addition, we are consulting various stakeholders to gather perspectives and further refine the approach.  

    • Standard setting: developing clear minimum requirements in terms of tasks, responsibilities and expectations that we set for PhD candidates, supervisors and graduate schools.
    • Guidelines for theses: creating clarity about minimum requirements for theses, both in terms of content and process.
    • Transparent procedures for conflicts: designing an escalation ladder for conflicts (related to PhD content) between PhD candidates and supervisor(s) and providing clarity about mandates.
    • Distribution of power: reducing the risk of abuse of power, including better monitoring and faster action when there are signs of undesirable situations and/or abuse of dependency relationships.
    • Improving the quality of research supervision: compulsory training for supervisors, plus opportunities for customisation if the quality of research supervision is inadequate.
       

  • Employee Code of Conduct

    We are currently evaluating the code of conduct for employees. To this end, we are conducting interviews, distributing a questionnaire via the employee panel and analysing a number of case studies. We are examining both the content of the code of conduct and associated regulations, as well as the way in which these are communicated and applied. Do you have any input? Please let us know via socialsafety [at] ru.nl (socialsafety[at]ru[dot]nl).

Themes for students

  • Student development module 

    We are working on development modules for students. The aim is to implement short-term interventions that raise awareness and improve behaviour in relation to social safety.

    We conducted a survey to identify students' needs and used the results to determine what we can offer. Concrete steps will follow in the coming months, such as: 

    • Creating an introductory video about social safety for first-year students, which will also cover the code of conduct.
    • Developing short knowledge clips that can be used in lectures.
    • Organising bystander intervention training: in December for student councils and in February during the Wellbeing Weeks.
    • Organising workshops on social safety by DEI ambassadors at all faculties.