Seven million for Graduate Programme

12 August 2009

Joint NWO and OCW press release

Nine research schools and Graduate Schools are taking part in a programme for talented researchers

The Dutch Minister of Education, Science and Culture, Mr Ronald Plasterk, has announced which nine research schools are to participate in the first Graduate Programme. The subsidy is intended for the creation of an excellent educational and research environment for highly talented young researchers. The aim is to realise innovations in researchers’ training in a manner that shall also give future doctoral students more say in the research to be carried out. The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) developed the programme at the request of the Minister.

The research schools within the Graduate Programme follow the same pattern as the most successful research schools worldwide and have an excellent scientific level. Innovations include the future doctoral students rotating and being able to take part in different research projects while still receiving a substantial portion of coursework-based education. After their rotation, the students are free to decide the shape of their research and their choice of supervisor, which encourages the best possible research. The selection of candidates is also an important aspect and leads to an improvement in quality.

Besides NWO, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and the Dutch universities are also involved in the development of the programme. In this first Graduate Programme, national and local research schools or Graduate Schools were able to apply for an 800,000 euro subsidy. The money is intended for the appointment of doctoral students carrying out their research within the school.

NWO to provide additional funds

A total of 36 applications were submitted. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science had made money available for seven schools. NWO’s Governing Board was impressed by the high standard of the applications and decided to fund an additional two schools, taking the total to nine schools with a budget of 7.2 million euro.

This first round was a pilot round. In future, it will be possible to set up a more structured programme. An annual budget of about 15 million euro has been envisaged for this in the long term.

A list of the nine schools which shall participate in the first Graduate Programme is given below. The quotes are from the jury reports.

Cancer Genomics and Development Biology, Utrecht
Participating institutions: Utrecht University, Hubrecht Institute, University Medical Center Utrecht.
“A unique concentration of high-quality talent and enthusiasm in all three participating parties.”

Casimir Research School, Delft
Participating institutions: Delft University of Technology, Leiden University.
“The school provides very high-quality teaching and guidance and also has a clear vision of how to offer students and doctoral students the best possible education.”

CentER Graduate School, Tilburg
Participating institution: Tilburg University.
“CentER opted for the Harvard/Stanford model at an early stage and has put the ideas underlying the Graduate School pilot into practice.”

Donders Graduate School for Cognitive Neuroscience, Nijmegen
Participating institutions: Radboud University Nijmegen, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour.
“The focus is on the students and graduate students, and the future graduate students have a large say in the shape of their doctoral research.”

Erasmus Research Institute of Management Graduate School, Rotterdam
Participating institution: Erasmus University Rotterdam.
“ERIM is our strongest representative (including at international level) in terms of management research and measures up to the best in Europe.”

Graduate School Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Maastricht
Participating institutions: Maastricht University, FZ-Jeulich, Cyclotron-Liege, GSK-London.
“This is a large Graduate School with a strongly interdisciplinary nature of very high scientific quality.”

Graduate School Experimental Plant Sciences, Wageningen
Participating institutions: Wageningen University and Research Centre Radboud University Nijmegen, Utrecht University, Leiden University, VU University Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands Institute of Ecology.
“The committee notes a very strong degree of commitment and has the impression that the school actively puts the interests of students and graduate students first.”

Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology, Groningen
Participating institutions: Groningen University, Radboud University Nijmegen, Utrecht University.
“A lot of attention is paid to the student’s freedom of choice, to the rotation opportunities and to the students writing their own research proposal.”

3TU.Centre for Ethics and Technology, Delft
Participating institutions: Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology, University of Twente.
“The cooperating ethicists from the three technical universities have been very successful in developing a joint research programme which is also held in high regard in international circles.”

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last modified on 2 September 2009