{"id":176716,"date":"2025-03-12T11:29:33","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T10:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=176716"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:43","slug":"give-researchers-their-own-budget-to-reduce-workload-says-the-young-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2025\/03\/12\/give-researchers-their-own-budget-to-reduce-workload-says-the-young-academy\/","title":{"rendered":"Give researchers their own budget to reduce workload, says The Young Academy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want to do something about workload issues in academia? Then give everyone their own research budget, says Eddie Brummelman, chair of The Young Academy.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMigle Alonderyte<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

This spring, the Labour Authority will carry out another investigation into work pressure and social safety at universities, a spokesperson confirmed<\/a> to Delta, Delft University of Technology\u2019s independent news platform.<\/p>\n

Five years ago, the Labour Authority called on universities to address their workload problems, but a report<\/a> published last year revealed that very little progress had been made. The inspections scheduled for the coming months will show whether the situation has improved.<\/p>\n

Budget cuts<\/h2>

This certainly doesn\u2019t seem likely, given the government\u2019s plans to slash research budgets. \u201cThere is a real risk that these cuts will further increase workloads\u201d, the universities wrote<\/a> in a letter to education minister Eppo Bruins shortly after the coalition agreement was published last summer.<\/p>\n

Bruins responded by pointing out that budget cuts do not absolve universities of their duty of care to their employees. It was high time for university administrators to start putting their plans into action, he wrote<\/a> to the House of Representatives last October.<\/p>\n

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Unsustainable pressure<\/h2>

Unmanageable workloads are a real problem, says Eddie Brummelman, chair of The Young Academy, a society for talented early-career researchers. Brummelman is also associate professor of pedagogy at the University of Amsterdam.<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018Dutch education and research are only so good because we all work overtime\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

\u201cUniversities have been under unsustainable pressure for decades\u201d, he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve managed to maintain a high level of quality in Dutch education and research, but only because everyone works overtime, which can\u2019t go on forever. There\u2019s been structural underfunding. That\u2019s why the previous government added a billion euros to our budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

This extra funding is now being taken away again. Still, The Young Academy is happy that the minister is concerned about workloads, Brummelman says. \u201cBut it is ironic, in times of austerity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young researchers<\/h2>

Workload problems are especially common among young researchers, according to Brummelman, who says this is borne out by the initial results of the Academy Thermometer, a new survey launched by The Young Academy. The data has not yet been published, but Brummelman says that the pressure is highest for PhD students, postdocs and assistant professors, probably due to their precarious position. \u201cThey have to teach more and more classes, but they\u2019re judged mainly on their research accomplishments.\u201d<\/p>\n

To have any chance of a career in academia, these young researchers all compete for grants from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). Universities see these as a mark of quality, and they give researchers the time and resources they need to actually do research. But those vying for NWO funding face stiff competition: out of every 100 applications, only 13 or 14 are approved.<\/p>\n

To address this problem, the previous government introduced so-called start-up grants: new university lecturers were given their own budget for research, making them less dependent on NWO. Meanwhile, more experienced researchers could apply for an incentive grant. But the system had teething problems, says Brummelman: \u201cSometimes faculties will expect you to use that money to hire a PhD student, and then suddenly you have less <\/em>time for research because you\u2019re also doing supervision.\u201d Make no mistake, he still thinks the start-up and incentive grants were a great idea. But these too have been cut.<\/p>\n

Pre-selection?<\/h2>

To curb the number of grant applications (and increase their success rates), some universities had plans to do their own pre-selection to filter out applications with a low chance of success. Might this be a solution?<\/p>\n

No, says Brummelman, because you also have to think about social safety. \u201cIf universities start doing their own pre-selection, they open themselves up to all sorts of risks. NWO committees are independent and well trained, and even they struggle to make these decisions. Pre-selection \u2013 and the dependency it creates \u2013 is dangerous. A lot of researchers need these grants to build their careers, and now they\u2019re intertwined with personnel policies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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