BioBusiness Summer School

Are you a PhD candidate, post-doctoral fellow, or master’s student in the field of Life Sciences and considering a career outside of academia? Join BioBusiness Summer School from 27 June to 1 July 2016 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In addition to learning about i.a. business development, product development, finance, and business models, you will also engage with business leaders and expand your network. Apply by 15 April 2016 and take advantage of the early bird fee! For more information about the programme and speakers, visit www.biobusinesssummerschool.nl

 

Brochure and programme BioBusiness Summer School

PhD candidates elected into the University Council and two Faculty Councils

At the University Council elections in April, two PhD candidates were elected: Eliane Fankhauser (119 votes) in the section alpha/gamma and Frank Hendriks (130 votes) in the section beta/medical. Marco Derks (166 votes), who was on position 5 in the section alpha/gamma of the VLAM list, missed 7 votes to reach the quota and was, therefore, not elected. Together they got 36% of all votes on candidates from academic staff!

Hilke Grootelaar has been elected into the Faculty Council of Law, Economics and Governance, and Lisanne Walma into the Faculty Council of Science. Unfortunately, the other two PhD candidates running for a position in a Faculty Council (Willem-Bart Bartels at the Faculty of Geosciences and Lukas van den Berge at the Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance) have not been elected.

Prout wants to thank all of you who voted for one of the PhD candidates running for a position in one of the Councils. Aside from the fact that PhD candidates can provide a fresh view on issues at stake, Prout finds it important that the interests of PhD candidates are promoted in the Councils. We wish Eliane, Frank, Hilke and Lisanne all the best in their work and look forward to a fruitful cooperation.

Government’s Academic Vision

The Minister of Education, Culture and Science has recently presented a policy document Wetenschapsvisie 2025: Keuzes voor de toekomst (Academic Vision: Choices for the Future). Two items are particularly relevant for PhD candidates.

The Minister announces – again – plans for the introduction of a bursary PhD experiment. A bursary PhD candidate is a PhD student, whereas currently most PhD candidates in the Netherlands are university employees. Prout keeps a close and critical watch on these developments.

Executive Boards (Colleges van Bestuur) will receive the legal option to give the ius promovendi to associate professors (universitair hoofddocenten). If an Executive Board decides to do so, also associate professors can become a member of the examination committee (beoordelingscommissie).

 

Jet Bussemaker by Partij van de Arbeid (CC BY 2.0)

Jet Bussemaker by Partij van de Arbeid (CC BY 2.0)