{"id":106887,"date":"2019-12-06T10:22:03","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T09:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=106887"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:24:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:24:35","slug":"universities-leave-millions-unused-for-promotion-of-female-academics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2019\/12\/06\/universities-leave-millions-unused-for-promotion-of-female-academics\/","title":{"rendered":"Universities leave millions unused for promotion of female academics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Universities are missing out on millions in NWO funding that could be used to promote women to senior academic positions. Of the researchers who are eligible for this grant \u2013 known as the \u2018Aspasia allowance\u2019 \u2013 one out of five isn\u2019t offered the accompanying promotion to associate professor or professor.<\/p>\n

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This becomes clear from a survey held by de Volkskrant<\/em><\/a> among 200 women who had been awarded a Vidi or Vici grant between 2013 and 2018. Erasmus Magazine<\/em> also has access to the results of this poll. These researchers were each entitled to 50,000 to 200,000 euros in funding from the Dutch Research Council (NWO), provided their university promoted them within one year to the position of, respectively, associate professor or full professor and they didn\u2019t already hold this position. The Aspasia allowance is paid out on top of the 800,000 and 1.5 million euro paid out respectively under Vidi and Vidi: two of the most prestigious personal grants awarded by the funding agency.<\/p>\n

The Aspasia programme is intended to increase the share of women in senior positions. After all, women remain seriously underrepresented in the highest academic echelons. According to the Monitor maintained by the Dutch Network of Women Professors<\/a> (LNVH), in 2017 only 30% of the Netherlands\u2019 associate professors and 21% of the professors were female. Indeed, only 13.5% of the professors at EUR<\/a> are women. In 2018, just one of Erasmus School of Economics\u2019 full professors<\/a> was a woman \u2013 compared to 36 men. Recently, the Diversity & Inclusion Office launched a new policy measure to enable more female EUR scientists to move up to the position of associate professor or full professor.<\/p>\n\n\t

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Read the interview with Chief Diversity Officer Semiha Denkta\u015f <\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t