RSA CE&C 2015-2021

2. Strategic aims 21 2.2. RESPONSE TO THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE PREVIOUS ASSESSMENT Research evaluations at the level of the department take place every six years. Below, we follow up on the recommendations mentioned in the department’s previous assessment in 2015. 4 Specific evidence and accomplishments are given in the next part of this report. Unlike the current evaluation, the previous evaluation was a joint evaluation of the three technical universities in the Netherlands (3TU evaluation of Chemical Engineering at TU/e, University of Twente and TU Delft). • Decline in direct university funding, resulting in a higher workload of staff: In recent years, the direct funding situation of the department has improved due to a redistribution of the university funding. This has, to some degree, relieved the pressure on staff members. At the end of the current evaluation period, direct funding covered nearly all costs for permanent staff, education and general operations. For the coming years, the sector plans 5 provide additional funding for newly attracted staff members in key research areas. The acquisition of external funding remains very competitive though, implying that staff are forced to put substantial effort into grant applications. • Career prospects for non-tenured/tenured staff: Following a change in Dutch law on higher education, associate professors now also have ius promovendi , which aligns with the notion that associate professors develop independent research lines within the university. Expectations on career prospects and promotion have been clarified, while procedures have been streamlined in such a way that the Department Board is more closely involved in the career paths of younger staff members, including through direct discussions between staff members and the board. • Gender balance: During the review period, the department has striven to broadly increase the number of female staff members, specifically the number of female full professors who can act as role models. Besides this, the department hired several female tenure-track assistant professors in the recent sector plan round. Dedicated search committees are regularly tasked to identify female talent for specific positions. As presented in more detail in Chapter 5, the number of female scientific staff increased from 15 to 26% during the review period. • Time to doctoral degree: A new online system to monitor the progress of PhD projects and homogenize procedures with respect to the defense trajectory has been implemented. The time between the finalization of the thesis and the actual defense remains about the same (ca. 3.5 months, see Chapter 5). • Ensure broad funding covering fundamental and applied research: During the evaluation period, most of the research of the department was funded by a balanced mix of curiosity- driven fundamental research on the one hand and more applied research on the other. This holds not only for the many relatively small projects but also for larger consortia covering fundamental research and applied research. • Visibility of young researchers on the TU/e website: The TU/e website has been redesigned and all researchers have their own research pages in line with the policy that all staff, including junior staff, develop their own research lines. 4 The assessment report of the 3TU evaluation (2010-2015) is available at https://www.tue.nl/en/our-university/ departments/chemical-engineering-and-chemistry/the-department/research-evaluation/ 5 The first Physics and Chemistry sector plan was initiated in 2009, followed by a second Chemistry sector plan running from 2018-2024: https://www.sectorplan-betatechniek.nl . The sector plan budget for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering is an additional governmental budget intended to focus on and enforce the fundamental basis of the technical sciences at the Dutch universities and can be applied to the expansion of research capacity and attracting and retaining of talent.