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Recognition & Rewards


A new vision on Recognition & Rewards

At the start of the new academic year, the Recognition & Rewards Committee proudly presents the vision of Radboud University on Recognition & Rewards. This vision aims to create a new balance in working and pursuing a career in science. Radboud University aims for change that is supported as broadly as possible in the areas of quality, collaboration, career diversity in science and the human dimension, according to the vision document.

Download the Vision Document

From Roundtable dialogues held with various target groups over the past year, a clear picture has emerged of the need and opportunities for change. The dialogue started with the academic staff, but the changes apply to all layers and to all employees who contribute to the core tasks of education, research, social impact, leadership, and patient care.

In the coming years, we will work together to initiate the necessary changes within the system and the culture of Recognition and Rewards. Our goal is to maximise the impact on the well-being of our scientists.

We are curious about your experiences

We kindly invite you to read the Radboud University vision on recognition and rewards, and to provide us with an insight into which of the presented scenario’s best resemble your current experiences. To do so, please fill in this survey.

Current events

Recognition and Rewards E-Magazine

The national Recognition & Rewards programme has launched a new e-magazine. By means of (in-depth) articles and video fragments, the national ambitions and progress of the Recognition & Rewards programme are highlighted.

To the Recognition & Rewards E-Magazine

The magazine also provides an impetus to (continue to) engage with each other within our own university. This mainly involves sharing good practices, informing about (international) developments, offering personal stories and stimulating mutual discussion.

Radboud Reflects: Teaching and Tenure

The combination of education and research is at the root of the modern university. However, critics of this principle argue that the two tasks are not complementary, but conflicting.

On 5 October 2022, World Teachers Day, the Recognition and Rewards programme, in collaboration with Radboud Reflects, is organising the Teaching and Tenure discussion table on this topic. Come and learn from law professor and 100% lecturer Sandra Arntz and former director of education at the Faculty of Arts Edwin van Meerkerk, what it takes to properly value the teaching of the next generation.

For more information and registration, check the event website.

Second edition Radboud Young Academy 'Recognises and Rewards' award

The Radboud Young Academy presents the second edition of the Radboud Young Academy ‘Recognises and Rewards - award'. For this award every employee of the university or the Radboudumc can nominate a colleague or colleagues who contribute to a healthy and effective work environment – in whatever way. In the autumn a lottery will decide six winners, who will receive a gift card of €500. In 2021 this prize was a huge success and we could make a lot of colleagues happy with a nice nomination. Let’s give a sign of appreciation to your colleagues as well as a positive impulse to a healthier academic culture. Nominate your colleague(s) for the Radboud Young Academy ‘Recognizes and Reward – award’ via our website.

Watch the video (in Dutch)

Column Daniël Wigboldus

For some time now, universities in the Netherlands have been discussing how to recognise and reward their staff. Do we adequately reward commitment and qualities related to education, impact, collaboration, supervision and support tasks? Given that we do so many things at the university, why do recognition and promotion seem to mainly come down to research performance? Lees meer in de column van Daniël Wigboldus

Testimonials

By means of various testimonials of our employees regarding Recognition and Rewards, we aim to show best practices, but we also shine a light on areas where there still is room for improvement. Check out the first two stories below (more stories to follow).

Want to share your story? Reach out to us via erkennenwaarderen@ru.nl.

Recognition & Rewards articles

Round Table discussions

To discuss the theme of Recognition & Appreciation with a broad group of Radboud University staff, discussion tables were organised in 2021.

A report of the round tables are available in Dutch

Principles of Recognition & Rewards

To arrive at a new balance, the Recognition & Rewards Committee has established four principles

Focus on collaboration

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We will collaborate more on our core tasks and provide greater and more explicit rewards for team efforts and for everyone’s individual contributions.

Quality above quantity

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We will use a richer understanding of quality to evaluate our work and to reward performance (teaching, research, impact, administration/leadership and patient care).

Room for diversity

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We will recognise the importance of the diversity of academic tasks and explicitly reward the corresponding talents and aspirations of staff – variable across staff and flexible over time.

An eye for the human dimension

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We will take the human dimension as our starting point: mutual trust, open communication and striving for a balance between professional autonomy and good governance, and between professional and private life.

A new system of recognition and rewards

Finding a new balance

With immense effort and dedication, you and your colleagues carry out research, teach and make your contribution to the work of Radboud University. In this way, you advance not only science and scholarship, but also students and society at large. And at Radboud university medical center, you also advance patient care.

Perhaps your talents lie more in teaching and teaching innovation, or in research, securing grants or showing leadership. For the university and scholarship to flourish, all these talents are needed. At present, the university adopts too one-sided an approach when it comes to recognising and rewarding your specific talents. The focus tends to be on those who conduct top research, secure numerous grants and publish many articles in leading journals.

We need to pay more attention to your unique talents, to the quality of your work, to rewarding all the tasks that you perform and your team contributions. The system and practices by which the university implicitly and explicitly rewards talent, effort and involvement need to be radically changed. The Recognition & Rewards Committee is addressing this issue at Radboud University. One outcome has been the Discussion paper (pdf, 386 kB) ‘You have a part to play’ – Recognition and Rewards in Nijmegen.

Finding a new balance in recognition and rewards isn’t just a Nijmegen issue, it is recognised nation-wide.

We are in this together

‘You have a part to play. This includes for the quality of your work (which is not easy to measure), for your collaboration with others, for the combination of teaching, research, leadership and societal impact that is appropriate to you, and with an explicit focus on the balance between control and autonomy and between professional and private life.’ – Recognition & Rewards Committee

National initiative

Recognition & Rewards is a national initiative by Dutch knowledge institutions and research funders. Their message is outlined in the paper ‘Room for everyone’s talent’. Here you can find a report of the national Conference on Recognition & Rewards Systems for Academics, which has served as a springboard for this issue.

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Let's get in touch

The new approach to recognition and rewards will affect you, which is why the university would like to hear your views on the issue. Share them with us via erkennenwaarderen@ru.nl.

Further information