Open science in team building and career

To improve awareness and practices on diversity and inclusion, the UMCG has appointed an Ambassadors Group for Diversity and Inclusion and a dedicated working group which have together set the priority towards higher visibility, higher awareness and higher self-awareness. Training sessions on inclusive recruitment and unconscious bias are continuously organised. 

An overview of initiatives and commitment of the UMCG to diversity, inclusion and gender equality is available in the Gender Equality Plan, endorsed by the Board of the UMCG.

Visit for more information the diversity and inclusion page. (Dutch only)

Career development of academic personnel has received substantial attention in the past years, not only within the UMCG, but also nationally. Currently the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU and NFU) is developing new standards and guidelines for recognition and reward in academia, often referred to as the  Recognition and Reward (R&R) program. The aim of the R&R program is to shift the strong focus  of research & career evaluations from publication-centric quantitative metrics to a wider set of parameters. Diverse contributions  of researchers to education, care and societal impact will be encouraged.

The UMCG participates actively in the R&R committees of the Federation of UMCs and the UG by bringing forward the perspective of researcher-clinicians. The UMCG works on improving quality indicators in practice (e.g. field-weighted citation impact instead of H-index or journal-based indicators) and is developing more adequate indicators for societal relevance of research.

In 2018, a new UMCG-wide procedure for academic career development was implemented (‘Academic Leadership’), which is characterised by: 

• Two academic tracks: the Talent Track, which can lead to full professorship, for top-talents (top 5%); and the Regular Academic Track, which can lead to the rank of UHD-1 through internal promotion; 
• Differentiated research impact profiles for all academic positions, taking into consideration contributions in  Research, Education, Health Care and Society & Valorisation, with use of differentiated and quality-oriented assessment criteria according to, e.g. type of networking partners and funding sources as well as various types of research outputs and impacts that are beyond traditional outputs such as publications. This differentiation is in line with the Recognition & Reward program, therefore is truly reflecting the importance for UMCG of rewarding all types of academic contributions. 
• A UMCG-broad Promotion Advisory Committee evaluates all internal promotions in two rounds per year using standardised portfolios. 
• In addition to the ‘Academic Leadership’ tracks – based on the usual assistant professor, associate professor and full professor ranks – an ‘Educational Leadership’ track was implemented in 2020. This track supports employees with teaching and training tasks in one of the UMCG curricula and the professional specialisation programs, to develop their career from Junior Academic Teacher, through Academic Teacher and Senior Academic Teacher, up to Leading Academic Teacher.

Learn more about the Reward and Recognition program

Visit for more information and support about developing your career.