Confidential Contact Persons

The purpose of the Confidential Contact Persons is to provide a low-threshold contact point for you as a junior scientific staff: junior researchers, PhD candidates, postdocs and assistant professors.

For example, you could contact a Confidential Contact Person regarding the following topics:

PhD track

  • Problems with supervision, such as disagreements with members of the supervision team;
  • Personal circumstances that affect the PhD track;
  • Motivational issues or doubts;
  • Unclear criteria for completing the PhD dissertation;
  • Work, performance or publication pressure.

Research integrity

  • Questions about specific research practices;
  • Differing views on responsible research practices.

Undesirable behaviour

  • If you are not sure whom to contact for support.

Within your organization or faculty, you can contact a confidential contact person of your own institute, but you can also contact a confidential contact person of another institute.

Difference Between the Confidential Contact Persons and the Confidential Advisors

The Confidential Contact Persons are meant to be a low-threshold, local person to contact. Therefore, they work on the level of the research institute, the Graduate School or the Faculty. The Confidential Contact Persons have a broad focus and do not offer long-term support.

Confidential Advisors are appointed RU wide and focus specifically on undesirable behaviour or scientific integrity. You can contact the Confidential Advisors for longer-term support. You can also contact the confidential advisors for a consultative appointment, but the focus will always be on undesirable behaviour or scientific integrity.

The roles of Confidential Contact Persons and Confidential Advisors are meant to complement each other, in order to offer an as complete as possible array of support for junior scientific staff.

Who are the Confidential Contact Persons in my institute/faculty?

Other sources of support

Depending on your issue, there are many other sources of support available, such as HR, your supervisor, the PhD Coordinator, or campus wide facilities such as the campus psychologists or the occupational social workers. If you don’t know exactly whom to go to, feel free to contact a Confidential Contact Person for a consultative appointment.