NNV Diversity Prize 2018 awarded to Groningen
The first edition of the NNV-Diversity Prize was won by the faculty of Science and Engineering of the University of Groningen (RUG). The NNV (Netherlands Physical Society) has created the prize for the physics institution that is most successful in putting an open diversity policy into practice. The prize is a tribute and an inspiring example for other institutes and/or departments.
The award ceremony took place on 21 January 2019 during the dinner meeting of workgroup leaders of the NWO (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk, Dutch Science Organisation), prior to the scientific meeting Physics@Veldhoven. On behalf of the RUG, Petra Rudolf and Jasper Knoester received a plaque from NNV chairman Diederik Jekel.
Judge Els de Wolf explained the jury report. She indicated that the insight that science is a stronghold of men with a Western cultural background is widely shared. Although there is hardly ever explicit preferential treatment, experience shows that there are many obstacles for people from outside this group to fully develop their scientific talents. This is a serious problem for individuals who encounter these barriers, often hard to see, but it is also a problem for science. Science thrives on using as large a reservoir of the best talents as possible and on the widest possible diversity of insights and working methods.
All universities and research institutes have now formulated measures to promote the diversity of participants in the science business. Paper is patient, but in practice progress is still limited. It is precisely in this practice that major differences develop between scientific institutions. The new NNV Prize offers the opportunity to celebrate what has already been achieved, but also to draw attention to the fact that many institutes still often lack truly equal treatment of students, PhD candidates and candidates for scientific positions.
In this first edition of the prize, the NNV received several nominations. In the first selection, particular attention was paid to the policy of the physics institute or faculty, which goes beyond the policy formulated by the institution as a whole. Attention was also paid to original initiatives and concrete evidence of the success of the policy. After this initial selection, the top three were the physical research institutes of the universities in Eindhoven, Groningen and Leiden.
A delegation of the jury visited these three institutions and spoke with the dean or management and separately with a selection of members of the scientific staff, PhD students, postdocs and master students. The jury was able to have extensive and very frank conversations, from which the image remains that in recent years much for the better has changed in the three institutions.
Based on the description of the many original initiatives developed in Groningen and on the discussions with a large and diverse delegation of staff, the jury came to the unanimous conclusion that the first NNV Diversity Prize should be awarded to the Faculty of Science and Engineering of the University of Groningen. The faculty plays a pioneering role, both nationally and internationally. The most prominent is the Rosalind Franklin programme, which originated from an initiative of the faculty and has since been successfully implemented throughout the university. In addition, a powerful diversity policy in Groningen is propagated with conviction by all leaders and managers in the academic staff.
A coming issue of the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Natuurkunde will focus extensively on the winner and the policy pursued.
