Excellence Initiative Procedure

Steps

1. Nomination document

   The nominator needs to submit the following document, of which most parts will be provided by the nominee.

   The document should be made in PDF format and should be named as follows:
   <year> <fellow or prof > <surname> nomination.pdf, e.g. “2025 fellow Smith nomination.pdf”.
   Applications can be submitted in Dutch or English.

   The nomination document should consist of the following parts:

   1. Nomination form: Complete the nomination form. Since the nomination form is processed automatically, we kindly ask you to make sure that the nomination form remains an editable digital PDF form.
   2. Layman’s summary: Brief summary of the research proposal in layman’s terms (100-150 words).
   3. Research proposal: Description of the intended project at Radboud University or Radboudumc (max. 1500 words excl. references). The proposal should include: title of the project, subject, methods, aims, motivation of selection of host institute, bibliography, time schedule etc.
   4. Curriculum Vitae: Submit a CV of 3 pages maximum, which should not include a list of publications.
   5. Key publications: List of the candidate's 10 most relevant publications. Please do not submit a full publication list; just highlight the candidate's 10 key publications.
   6. Recommendation letter 1: Letter from an esteemed academic in the nominee’s field of research (max. 1 page). Please mention the page limit in advance, when asking someone to write this letter of recommendation.
   7. Recommendation letter 2: Letter from a second esteemed academic in nominee’s field of research (max. 1 page).
   8. Host recommendation: Letter written by the nominator, addressing the following questions:
      1. Do you know the nominee personally or are you in contact with their current research institute?
      2. How do you evaluate the nominee’s academic career and achievements as to date?
      3. To what extent were you involved in drawing up the research proposal?
      4. How does the proposed project fit in with the research being carried out at your institute?
      5. How do you evaluate the research proposal? (E.g. current relevance, originality, focus, feasibility, how it will strengthen the research institute’s international networks and collaborations, and for fellows: how it will contribute to the nominee’s academic career.)
   9. Estimated budget: When nominating a candidate, you need to include a proposed budget. This budget will include expected costs and how these will be financed. Please note that not all costs will be covered by Radboud Excellence Initiative. Therefore, we ask your Financial Department to check and approve the budget, in order to avoid future misunderstandings. Please use the Excel file to see what kind of costs could be included in the budget.

2. Nominator submits the nomination document

   The nominator should send the PDF document to excellence-nominations [at] ru.nl before the deadline mentioned at the top of this page.

3. Jury assessment and decision

   Once the deadline for nomination has passed, the applications will be checked and submitted to the Radboud Excellence Initiative jury, who will critically assess them. The jury is asked to give an opinion based on the quality of the candidate and the proposed research plan. The intended result of the jury meeting is a motivated advice with prioritisation and recommendations:

   • A = candidate meets the Radboud Excellence Initiative's requirements of excellence
   • B = candidate or research plan does not meet the level expected within the Initiative
   • C = nomination is considered non-eligible (check by the Secretary of the Jury).

   The jury will then make their recommendations and present their advice to the Executive Boards of Radboud University and Radboudumc. The Boards decide how many positively assessed nominations can be honoured based on the available resources and how many will be retained as a reserve.

4. Letter to the nominator

   At least one month after the deadline the nominators will receive official notice of acceptance or rejection. Rejections will include a motivation and sometimes a suggestion for re-submission in a subsequent round.

   Candidates will have two weeks to consider whether or not they will accept the fellowship. If they do accept, they will soon be informed of what is needed to start their research in Nijmegen.

5. Exceptions

   Please note that the jury uses the criteria and other rules in principle: when a good motivation is provided, the jury can deviate from the criteria.
   Requests for extension of the maximum duration of a Professorship or Fellowship on the basis of (informal) care or training in a clinical specialization are possible. These must be explained separately in the application.