RSA CE&C 2015-2021

12 1.3. ORGANIZATION OF RESEARCH GROUPS All academic staff members in the department are embedded in research groups of 2-5 people who share responsibilities in education and research within a specific scientific area. The permanent staffing of such a research group typically consists of a chair with one or more professors and associate professors, one or more (tenure-track) assistant professors and several technical support staff members. All staff members are scientifically independent and everyone is encouraged to develop his/her own independent line of research.We give room to everyone’s talent, also allowing younger scientific staff to carry responsibility and take leadership early on in their careers depending on individual career paths and track records in research, education and valorization. More experienced scientific staff have a clear responsibility to coach and stimulate younger members in their research groups. Details on the composition of each research group are given in the additional booklet attached to this report. 1.4. POSITIONING Table 2 summarizes the number of research staff and researchers of the department. It shows a very stable and steady number of scientific staff and PhD students over the past seven years. At the end of the review period (2021), the scientific staff of the department totals 35.2 FTE (full- time equivalent): 15.3 FTE full professors and part-time professors from industry and research institutes, 4.0 FTE associate professors, 15.9 FTE assistant professors, 24.8 FTE technical staff and 24.7 FTE support staff. There are 353 bachelor’s and 270 master’s students, 216.4 FTE PhD students, 45.3 FTE professional doctorate trainees and 44.9 FTE postdoctoral fellows. The department’s total annual budget in 2021 was €31.6 M.