Section 6 EUR - a diverse community with a unifying mission

With more than 650 vacancies, Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) welcomed a large number of new colleagues to the EUR community in 2022. They received an introduction through the central onboarding programme. Various activities within the organisational units enabled them to quickly get to know their colleagues. With an excellent range of facilities on campus, including the new sports centre, childcare facilities, and our Food Plaza, EUR offers not just a professional but also a highly attractive working environment and encourages a healthy work-life balance. 

We place EUR in the spotlight as an employer with Employer Branding. We put employees’ stories centre stage in a series of captivating videos and testimonials in which our Erasmians show the viewer their work at EUR. 

A number of changes have also been made in recruitment and selection procedures to provide staff with the best possible support. The introduction of an EUR applicant tracking system has automated many administrative activities and made it easy for selection committees to create structure. 

The internally developed Recruitment & Selection 101 training helps vacancy holders and selection committee members to ensure that recruitment and selection is inclusive and provides specific tools for this purpose. The new recruiters cover and support various managers with their recruitment challenges. With the introduction of the new recruitment and selection policy, EUR is not only creating a great place to work for current employees, but is also working to ensure an excellent experience for the thousands of applicants that approach EUR every year.

To make EUR’s ambition to ‘Create positive societal impact’ a success, it is important to modernise the current Recognition and Rewards system for academic staff. The system must accommodate the wide range of qualities and activities of academic staff in the areas of teaching, research, impact, leadership/management and patient care. 

Since the publication of the position paper ‘Room for everyone’s talent: towards a new balance in the recognition and rewards for academics’, EUR has been working to improve the academic environment by creating an inclusive, open and transparent culture and system for recognising, rewarding and remunerating various aspects of academic work. 

A programme team has been active at central level since May 2020. This team works with the faculties and services such as Human Resources (HR), Erasmus Research Services (ERS) and Academic Affairs (AZ) to develop and implement Recognition & Rewards. In 2021, one of the results of the programme team’s efforts was the formation and formalisation of the EUR Framework for Recognition & Rewards. A number of faculties and services made further progress in 2022 based on the key themes in this framework (creating positive societal impact, working towards differentiated career paths and team science and enhancing academic leadership).

One of the outcomes is that two faculties have now developed, formalised and implemented differentiated career paths in which academic staff can stipulate at assistant and associate professor level whether they want to place an emphasis on education, research, impact or leadership/management. One of the faculties also moved towards a stronger focus on team/science. In addition, two faculties are adopting a different approach to the annual Results & Development interviews. 

It is good to see that the EUR Framework allows faculties the scope to shape the Recognition & Rewards ideology in line with their own culture and discipline: one of the faculties asks academic staff to write a narrative in which they show not only what they have done, but most importantly also why they did it, how they contributed and how it has benefited them and their environment. The other faculty switched to appraisal interviews, which give the employee greater scope to determine the frequency and content of the interviews. The other faculties are also making increasing progress in terms of Recognition & Rewards: doctorate criteria are being reviewed, the use of a narrative is becoming more and more widespread in applications for doctoral programmes, team science pilots are being set up (ARIA pilot), the further development of the Professors and PhD Policy is being considered, and strategic workforce planning is being developed. 

The services are also taking a number of steps in the area of Recognition & Rewards. Amongst other things, HR has introduced a leadership project leader and a Results & Development project leader. They are actively working towards the development and implementation of new leadership programmes and the modernisation of the EUR-wide Results & Development policy. The Recognition & Rewards ideology will be an integral part of both projects. AZ and ERS are also making considerable to integrate Recognition & Rewards into current developments, for example in relation to the sector plans and the starting and incentive grants. Like many other universities, EUR has also signed the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment, by which it commits to evaluate and assess research activities and results differently. 

EUR is placing additional emphasis on the importance of Recognition & Rewards by releasing funds for its further development and implementation. Whereas the programme team at central level was initially fairly small, the team is now well established and actively seeks contact with the faculties to inspire, advise and support them. The team consists not only of policy and project employees, but also two mid-career university graduates who want to bring Recognition & Rewards to the next level. Since the end of 2022, there has also been a focus on a bottom-up movement to raise awareness of Recognition & Rewards among the wider EUR community. At the end of the day, it is all about their careers and it is important to actively involve them in this complex change in culture.

Diversity and inclusion (D&I) are well embedded in EUR’s current strategy to create positive societal impact. EUR interprets ‘diversity’ to mean both visible (for example gender, age, race) and invisible (for example sexual orientation, disability, academic profile) diversity characteristics and ‘inclusion’ to mean the ability to fully express oneself while at the same time feeling part of the team. As EUR becomes more inclusive, it will also become more diverse. The university’s activities take into account and focus on the entire cycle of HR processes, including attracting, retaining, advancing and leaving, aimed at systemic changes as the key driver of change – also in relation to Recognition & Rewards and Leadership Development. 

The activities in 2022 can be summed up in three parts:

1. Events and policy to support D&I among staff

As part of Professional Services Day, the University Library, the Diversity and Inclusion Office and HR held an event called ‘Library of People’. During this day, staff were able to ‘loan’ a person with a unique story. The aim of the encounter was to promote open dialogue between employees and understanding of each others’ experiences and views. To raise awareness of gender plurality, employees have since 2022 been supported in expressing their gender in their email Outlook signature. 

EUR continues to help employees achieve the best possible work-family balance. Support measures include exemption from education or research after pregnancy, 100% salary payment during extended post-birth leave for partners (UWV covers 70% of the salary and EUR compensates the remaining 30%) and the publicising of facilities and rights for informal caregivers in a family-friendly brochure (about services such as the work-life-balance coaches). 

2. Sharing knowledge and giving advice in internal and external networks

EUR finds it very important to share experiences and knowledge with external parties. It does so by taking part in events such as meetings of the Dutch Network of Female Professors (LNVH), which is attended by HR policy advisers from all other Dutch universities and UMCs. EUR is also a member of the Women INC incubators network: a network of diversity and inclusion pioneers. In 2022, EUR joined Workplace Pride, a foundation committed to improving the lives of lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people in organisations. EUR employees took part in Rotterdam Pride Pink Saturday along with the student organisation Erasmus Pride and other allies. In addition, a round-table discussion and two events were organised for LGBTQI+ employees and allies. QuEUR was also set up: an employee network for LGBTQI+ employees and allies. 

EUR takes part in national symposiums (such as the ECHO summit on opportunities for more inclusive higher education, where input is shared on an integrated approach to D&I that includes outreach, inclusive research and HR) and events, as well as exchanging knowledge with other Dutch universities and other organisations. This enables EUR to share its good practice examples with external parties and receive feedback and insight. Internally, diversity and inclusion are taken into account in HR-related developments such as leadership, recognition and rewards, performance and development. 

The Diversity and Inclusion Office received Erasmus+ funding from the EU for the new Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access (IDEA) network of Eastern European universities. The aim is to exchange experience and expertise in the area of diversity and inclusion, to learn, to grow and to build on one another’s experience. 

3. Monitoring

It was agreed with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science that EUR would have at least 25% female professors by 2025. This goal was achieved in 2022. A target of 35% has been set for 2025. In view of the composition of the workforce, faculty-specific goals have been adopted. Gender diversity in the upper echelons of the organisation has been monitored.

The composition of the appointment advisory committees (BAC) has also been examined, as has the composition of professors appointed between 2017 and 2021. Some of the key findings are that the male to female ratio among appointed professors has become more balanced, whereas endowed chairs show a curvilinear trend; professors are of a similar age at the time of their appointment and have similar contract hours. The vast majority of appointments took place by means of a closed procedure (77% for lecturers and 87% for endowed chairs). There has been more gender diversity within the BACs in recent years, although the committee chairs are predominantly male (79%).

EUR is an attractive employer for international academic talent. More than a quarter of the workforce are of non-Dutch nationality and the number is gradually growing. 

A solid foundation has been laid for processes in previous years, which we have continued to build on. This provided scope in 2022 to work towards improved information services for international employees. There was once again a dynamic offering of soft landing and warm welcome activities in 2022, with special mention going to the successful dual career programme with a 100% success rate. 

Number of international employees 

The growth in the number of international employees kept pace with previous years: from 785 to 825 employees, representing 23% of the total number of people with an employment contract.

In terms of the overall picture, it is important to also include employees who are affiliated to EUR without an employment contract. These individuals work on the basis of a scholarship, exchange, through an employment agency or on secondment. Of this group, 35% (1034 people) are of non-Dutch nationality. The number of international employees with an employment contract within the academic staff is considerable in a number of faculties.

The information services have been fully revised and updated. New international employees can now visit a web page to find general information about working at EUR. Offer letters enclose a comprehensive brochure that explains the process in more detail, including points for the employee to consider and how EUR can help. Upon acceptance, the updated intranet page provides answers to a wide range of questions. New employees are also invited to attend an information day in the context of the onboarding process. This is an opportunity to ask all sorts of practical questions. The existing ways of asking personal questions are still available. 

Soft landing and warm welcome

A lot of energy was once again invested in making international employees feel at home in 2022. A total of 263 people took part in one or more social activities organised for all international staff. The number of activities organised was 21, including a visit to De Biesbosch National Park, Keukenhof, Klimbos and the Kunsthal. 

The happiness of an accompanying partner is also key to a positive start in a new country. EUR offers a successful dual career programme in collaboration with TU Delft and Leiden University. Thirteen partners took part in that programme, all of whom found a job within the prescribed twelve-month period.

In the context of the Participation Act, more than 70.15 jobs of 25.5 hours each were filled by people from the ‘Banenafspraak’ (job arrangement) target group in 2022. This is 61.22% of the agreed 114.6 jobs. Unfortunately, the 2022 goal of creating 114.6 jobs was not met because contracts were not always extended for various reasons. The supply of candidates was also reduced and demand and supply were not always in alignment. Nevertheless, 13.1 jobs were added for people with occupational disabilities within EUR compared with the previous year. In the previous year, nine jobs had been added. In conclusion, this means that more jobs were created for this target group in 2022 than in 2021. 

This was achieved by focusing on individual placements within the organisational units. Additionally, the focus has been broadened by including placements through collective job realisation and through further cooperation in terms of job realisation through procurement and social return. However, these jobs do not currently count towards the quota levy. The target group has also widened: asylum permit holders who join via the practical route also count. Ambassadors within different organisational units investigate whether there are places where someone can be employed through the Participation Act. 

As in 2021, training was offered to support supervisors and managers of employees with occupational disabilities. This training includes theory, practical examples and tools to help new and existing employees under the job arrangement get the best out of their jobs. Seventeen participants obtained the certificate for the training.

Training and Development Platform (TOP)

 The Training and Development Platform (TOP) organised forty training sessions, ranging from career training to leadership programmes. These training sessions were attended by a total of 307 participants. In addition, TOP offered the online courses provided by GoodHabitz. A total of 292 participants took advantage of the online training in 2021 and 99 certificates were obtained. Most of the study time was spent on the training courses in Lean, Excel and information security. 

Leadership development

 In the current strategic period, leadership development is an ongoing process at EUR. There were a number of developments, including the continuation of the Executive Management Meetings and the offsite retreats for directors of operations. Managers work on their continuing professional development by following various training courses from the TOP training offering, including:

• Personal Leadership; 
• Managing professionals; 
• Leadership in Academia; 
• Senior Leadership in Academia.

The leadership development programme manager was launched in August 2022. Following extensive research into what is needed to promote leadership development, a programme plan was drawn up. The Erasmian Leadership Profile was further developed and a steering group and committee were set up to implement the programme. Three work flows were formed: 

• vision, policy and leadership profile development;
• expansion of the leadership training portfolio within EUR (learning paths);
• the setting up of leadership communities of practice within EUR. 

The collaboration with EUR’s Recognition & Rewards programme and with Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), which also has a specific leadership committee, continued to take shape. 

Academic leadership

An updated leadership programme under the title ‘Leadership in Academia’ was developed in co-creation with the faculties. This programme started in the autumn with nineteen assistant professors and associate professors. It is an intensive and inspiring programme aimed at the further development of leadership skills. 

Two editions of the Senior Leadership in Academia programme were also held, again with nineteen participants. This is a tailored leadership programme for professors who are responsible for managing a department, section or team. 

Share Your Knowledge week

At the start of April, HR’s Learning & Career Centre and TOP organised the annual Share Your Knowledge Week. Colleagues held short informal workshops for each other as a way to share knowledge and experience. As a result, colleagues met in a different setting than usual, expanded their network and learned from each other.

In 2022, Share Your Knowledge week consisted of 25 workshops, ranging from ‘Academic writing in English’ to ‘How to pitch an idea’ to ‘An introduction to mindfulness’. A total of 375 employees enrolled. 

LDE traineeship 

The LDE traineeship is a two-year traineeship provided by Leiden University, Delft University of Technology and EUR. The ninth edition started in September 2022 with six first-year trainees taking on an assignment within EUR. Four second-year trainees also started at EUR on rotation from an assignment within Leiden or Delft. The new trainees were recruited and selected with the help of BMC, an external agency, and the training programme was provided by organisations including De Baak. 

Career guidance 

EUR employees regularly sought free guidance from career professionals in 2022. They did so in order to make the next step in their career, to obtain greater clarity on a choice or to receive support with personal growth and development. 

Employees can receive such support from two internal Career Coaches. These coaches are registered Career Professionals (Noloc certified). As well as individual coaching, they provide workshops and training courses. In 2022, the contributions made by the Career Coaches also included the improvement of coaching processes, professionalisation of career tools, improvement of procurement strategy for coaching and monitoring coaching programmes for the purpose of management information and policy development. 

The aim of the career guidance offered by EUR is to contribute to Sustainable Employability, to ensure that employees are and remain ‘Fit for the Future’ and to allow them to perform their role with job satisfaction, enthusiasm and vitality. Part of this is making sure that the right person is in the right place and preventing or minimising unnecessary absenteeism or early departures. 

The Career Coaches successfully completed 98 programmes. This translates to outcomes such as a different job within or outside EUR. Employees report that they are taking specific action to benefit their career, such as expanding and deploying their network. Another positive result is that employees feel more self confident thanks to the coaching (source: Qualtrics). Both academic staff (51.5%) and professional services staff (48.5%) used the services of the Career Coaches.

Career Week

Career Week is an annual event. The week consists of workshops, training sessions and activities centred around career development. In 2022, the programme featured 22 activities, including career coaching, a networking event and a range of workshops such as Playful Work Design, The Power of 50+, Staff Exchange and Negotiation. A total of 371 colleagues attended Career Week. They gave the week a rating of 8.2. 

As part of Career Week, a PhD Career Day was held for PhD students. The day consisted of a plenary opening session and four workshops: Building a Career Outside Academia, Building an Academic CV, Career Planning and Developing Your Online Identity. The PhD Career Day was attended by 112 PhD students. 

Job2job 

As a good employer, Erasmus University Rotterdam offers support at all stages of the employee journey. The Job2job department complements this provision by functioning as a catalyst for employees’ career relaunch. 

The Job2Job department supports and guides employees to new work if their contract expires within the next six months (from work to work, VWNW). The department is also aimed at former employees in unemployment reintegration and employees who can no longer perform their work after a period of leave. Job2Job’s case managers offer candidates a tailored process. They coach on an individual basis and act as an intermediary for candidates in their job search both within and outside the university. Each year, the Job2Job department receives approximately 130 applications. 

There were 121 active programmes with EUR employees in 2022. Of these, ninety were in receipt of unemployment benefit, 21 were members of the ‘From work to work pool’ and ten were following an absenteeism programme. 

Former employees are entitled to unemployment benefit for a maximum of two years. When former employees find a job with the help of Job2job, they stop receiving the unemployment benefit, which reduces the associated costs. A reduction in unemployment benefit of € 330,336.55 was achieved in this way in 2022.

Facilities and amenities

Information on health and safety at work was uploaded to the MyEUR intranet. HR publishes monthly newsletters for all employees, including managers. These provide information on hybrid working and available facilities to promote employee health. HR published ten newsletters in 2022. 

HR pages on the intranet were visited 131,223 times in 2022. That is 9.8% less than in 2021. The number of visits was highest during the last COVID-19 lockdown in early 2022. 

The homeworking allowance agreed by the CLA parties in 2021 continued to apply in 2022: € 2 per day worked from home and € 25 internet allowance per month in proportion to the employee’s contractual working hours. 

The previously arranged mental support resources remained available in 2022. One example is Open Up: every employee and guest staff member can schedule as many visits as needed with OpenUp’s qualified psychologists. In addition, all employees can make an appointment with a number of selected work-life balance coaches to work on a better work-life balance, without needing to go through their manager. Preventive support from the occupational physicians and staff welfare is also available to all employees free of charge. 

Social safety 

Social safety is a basic prerequisite for people to be able to work, learn, make a contribution and develop. Without social safety, EUR cannot achieve its goal of creating positive social impact. Social safety has therefore been a key focus area in recent years. In addition to the development of the Integrity Code, which sets out how staff and students are expected to behave, there is a broad system of measures to ensure a safe working and learning environment. The Integrity Code contains rules governing organisation and academic and interpersonal contact. Within this system, a number of officers are dedicated to supporting students and staff. They include confidential counsellors, staff welfare officers, study advisers, occupational physicians, diversity officers, counsellors, HR business partners, HR advisers, psychologists and an ombudsman. Procedures and regulations are also drawn up within this system, including the undesirable behaviour complaints procedure, and improvements are being made to make the reporting of incidents as accessible as possible. 

The subject of social safety is also part of the development programmes for leadership and teams and is further elaborated through the Erasmian Values. 

Complaint handling 

Anyone can submit a complaint about conduct at the university. Many complaints can be resolved in joint consultation. The Executive Board invites every member of the university community to make dissatisfaction open to discussion. If this does not lead to a solution or if it is difficult to openly discuss a complaint, an EUR confidential counsellor can help. 

A confidential counsellor listens to the complaint and provides information on possible next steps. A confidential counsellor has a specific task when it comes to undesirable behaviour and provides guidance on finding a solution. Further information can be found on the EUR website: https://www.eur.nl/en/educatio....

If a complaint cannot be resolved in consultation, it can be investigated by one of the university’s complaints committees. Depending on the subject of the complaint, the university has a number of complaints committees that investigate complaints, hear parties and advise the Executive Board. A complaints committee largely consists of external chairs and members. 

The Executive Board reaches a final decision on the complaint. In reaching a decision, the Executive Board takes into account the reports of the hearings and the advice of the complaints committee. Further information on the legal protection committees can be found on the EUR website: https://www.eur.nl/en/about-eu... 

Ombudsman and Confidential Counsellor Network 

An external agency conducted an evaluation of the Ombudsman and Confidential Counsellor Network pilots at the end of 2021. This report was shared and discussed with the organisation in 2022. Along with the publication of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) report on ‘Social Safety in Dutch Academia’, this forms the input for an integrated Social Safety plan, which EUR will work on over the coming years. 

The first EUR ombudsman was appointed in 2019. Following the departure of the current ombudsman in March 2022 it proved impossible to find an immediate successor and the Erasmus MC ombudsman was made temporarily available to EUR staff and students. A new ombudsman was recruited in 2022 and the position was filled once again with effect from 1 January 2023. 

Safe@EUR 

Safe@EUR will be a reporting and information centre where students, employees and visitors can make reports and ask questions about concerning and undesirable behaviour. The initial steps in the creation of Safe@EUR were taken in 2022. Safe@EUR will work to ensure that the university is safe and welcoming. The accessible reporting centre will focus primarily on prevention and awareness. The envisaged result is a well-organised communication platform, registration system and chain process to enable the effective assessment and monitoring of alerts of transgressive behaviour by the relevant responsible parties and experts. Safe@EUR is scheduled to start in mid 2023. 

Occupational Health and Safety and RI&E 

The approach to the mandatory Risk Inventory & Evaluation was laid down in the RI&E Master Plan in the reporting year. Work on centralised and decentralised implementation also commenced. An external agency carried out the inventory and evaluation on the occupational health and safety themes. In addition, an RI&E system was purchased. This system helps prevention officers to identify and list operational and site-specific risks. The occupational health and safety coordinator instructed these prevention officers to work with the system. 

Prevention officer network 

The occupational health and safety coordinator is also the central prevention officer. He is supported by decentralised prevention officers. A job profile has been established for this role. A network has also been set up for the prevention officers. They also received training. There were already thirty employees in the network by the end of the year. There is now only one EUR division that does not have a prevention officer. 

Blended working

The Blended Working Operationalisation work group completed the final elements of its assignments. This involved the drafting of a Blended Working Q&A, an EUR-wide policy on home working facilities, the drafting and implementation of the transitional arrangement for the purchase of home working facilities and the preparation of a tender for home office facilities. After completing these assignments the work group was disbanded. 

Absenteeism 

Absenteeism and sick reports increased in 2022. The main cause was the easing of Covid restrictions, combined with the much more infectious Omicron variant of the virus. COVID-19 waves occurred on an ongoing basis through the year. This resulted in an increase in the number of short-term sick reports (absence of one to six weeks), which was also reflected by the two-fold increase in reporting frequency in 2022. 

Rising absenteeism of employees with mental health problems was a matter of concern, although in line with the national trend. The impact of the pandemic on people’s resilience was cited as a cause.

2022 marked the twelfth year of the Campus in Development (CiO) investment programme. The focus this year was on the completion of two new construction projects: the energy neutral Sports Building and the sustainable and energy positive Langeveld education building. The decision was made to improve the sustainability of the building portfolio with the Buildings Energy Transition Portfolio Roadmap (PEG). See also: Built environment. 

Future campus 

In addition to the completion of the described buildings, initial steps were taken to significantly improve physical accessibility (see: Campus accessibility). The rainbow path was officially opened on ‘Coming Out Day’ and symbolises that everyone is welcome at our university. The Real Estate & Facilities (RE&F) department is working on strategic accommodation policy that sets out both a quantitative and qualitative framework for the medium and long term. The strategic proposal provides for a functional approach to the office environment, implements ‘future-proof learning’ and outlines sustainable solutions to waste collection and mobility issues for future growth. Decisions will be reached on the options and costs in 2023. 

In the short term, work has started on innovative concepts for the office environment (pilot projects in the faculties of RSM and ESE), based on the principle of a shared workplace. The experience gained will be used in the plans to renovate the Tinbergen building. The aim is to commence implementation in 2023. 

Langeveld Building and Sport Building

The multifunctional Langeveld education building, which was officially opened on 10 November 2022, contributes to the education and research objectives and is CO2 positive. The building offers a green and healthy study environment. EUR’s sustainability ambitions are clearly recognisable in this building. The new energy neutral Sport Building is also an inspiring venue boasting top-class facilities. The decision to include an extra large auditorium has also made this building future proof. The Sport Building was officially opened on 29 September 2022. 

Tinbergen Building: alternatives following closure 

The closure of the Tinbergen Building in 2021 resulted in a shortage of study areas and office space. Some of the office workspaces lost in the Tinbergen Building were reinstated in the Sanders Building. The result has been an increase in the sharing of workspaces in an inclusive environment. 

Student housing 

Basic principles have been established in collaboration with the municipality of Rotterdam and incorporated into a draft statement of commitments. In the statement, the parties express a desire to create shared student housing and to go through a tender process together in accordance with EU regulations. The aim is to build mainstream student housing at the location to the south of the Van der Goot Building. 

Design of the perimeter road 

Three landowners are involved in the design of the perimeter road: EUR, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and the municipality of Rotterdam. The municipality adopted the final design in 2022. The three parties subsequently laid down the management and maintenance agreements. EUR has already started to prepare for the implementation and the tendering process. This is expected to be completed in 2023. 

Campus accessibility 

An action plan to improve the physical accessibility of the campus was adopted in mid 2022. This forms part of an action plan that will be executed under the supervision of Education & Student Services (E&S). A number of awareness sessions were organised for this purpose. The RE&F department and colleagues from other services gained a better understanding of the limitations that people may experience on campus. A project leader is finalising a list of problems in this area. The focus lies on one-off solutions to accessibility issues affecting the site, library and disabled toilets. An adviser was appointed for 2023 to raise awareness of accessibility and to identify areas where accessibility is a problem in the campus buildings. This will be linked to an implementation approach for systemic improvements. The adoption of this action plan will also include the adoption of guidelines and basic principles for physical accessibility within RE&F. This will provide quality assurance within the RE&F department, improving the accessibility of future buildings and site modifications.

In addition to the procurement procedures, the focus in 2022 was on further developing the procurement function and embedding procurement policy within the organisation. Collaboration, supporting

EUR’s lead buyers, efficiency and sustainability are central to this process. Progress of the 2021-2024 Procurement and Contract Management Roadmap is on track. Nine of the fifteen action plans that help to create ‘positive societal impact [...] through legitimate, efficient and sustainable procurement’ have now been executed. 

Effectiveness 

EUR prepared and carried out European and multi-district private procurement procedures, after which agreements were concluded with entrepreneurs. Where possible, we collaborated with SURF. In addition to the procurement procedures, procurement package strategies were also drawn up. 

The Procurement and Contract Management department’s intranet page was updated in the context of visibility and information provision. New information was drawn up under the guidance of a communications adviser and the pages were redesigned based on the principles of the customer journey. 

The account discussions with the service directors tie in with the P&C cycle in terms of both content and planning.

EUR has a Tender Board. The Tender Board met twelve times, including an additional thematic session on the EUR Tender Board Rules. An officer was recruited who will assess whether EUR strategy is being implemented and supported. 

Sustainability 

For the purpose of monitoring the sustainability principles set out in the 2021-2024 Procurement Policy, a link has been established to the six themes in the Dutch government’s petal model in its manifesto on Socially Responsible Commissioning and Procurement. Procurement and Contract Management are being supported by an external party on the way

towards a practical, supported and feasible sustainable procurement structure in line with EUR’s ambitions. In addition, a Supply Chain Management intern from RSM has developed a tool to calculate a sustainability score for each supplier during the tendering process. 

Legitimacy 

Following the identification of expiring agreements and the tendering processes reported by lead buyers, the key focus lay on the annual schedule for EUR as a whole. This annual schedule was followed as closely as possible to support the lead buyers in starting procurement procedures in a timely manner and the feasibility of one or more tendering processes in the year in question. Another reason for this was to schedule the capacity of the Procurement and Contract Management department across EUR. Decision-making, availability and priorities of the parties involved in the tendering process are challenges that need to be overcome here. 

A number of formal legal recommendations were issued. In addition to the legal recommendations, ongoing advice was provided in the form of emails and discussions on the application of the Procurement Policy. 

The ‘End the Tailspend’ tendering process was launched. The aim is to improve both effectiveness and legitimacy throughout the process chain for the purchase of flowers, small presents, business gifts and other relatively small orders. The E-catalogue for this procurement package is likely to be implemented in the second quarter of 2023.

The opening of the campus in September 2022 makes this a special year. The partial closure of the campus resulted in lower energy consumption for an extended period. Now that the campus is once again open as ‘normal’, however, EUR is fully aware of the need to permanently reduce energy consumption and the university’s environmental footprint in general. Our staff and students have also expressed a desire to do this and we are therefore happy to engage in a dialogue on this issue in the years ahead. 

To permanently reduce EUR’s energy consumption and CO2 emissions, an implementation plan was developed for the Sustainable Campus roadmap in 2022. Sustainability improvements were made in relation to buildings, waste, food/catering and procurement. 

Buildings 

The Executive Board adopted the Buildings Energy Transition Portfolio Roadmap (PEG). This released around € 20 million to improve insulation in the existing building stock and to facilitate smarter energy management, enabling EUR to further reduce its energy consumption. 

As stated earlier in the annual report, the new energy neutral Sports Building and the highly sustainable and circular multifunctional Langeveld education building were also completed. A sustainable thermal energy storage system was installed in the Theil building. The system will be brought into use in 2023. 

Waste management 

We improved waste flows by further refining measurements. Waste reduction is an ongoing process at EUR. Measures include the trial use of reusable cups by the on-campus catering services.

In addition, we are ensuring that our caterers offer a more varied and healthy range, more local and seasonal products and less wastage. The measures result in a more sustainable chain and lower CO2 emissions. The caterer Vitam and EUR are also offering more vegetarian and vegan products. 

Sustainable procurement 

After an orientation phase in 2021, the Procurement department took practical steps in relation to sustainability frameworks that can be used in the procurement process. 

Mobility 

2022 saw the first steps towards a new Mobility Plan that will help to improve the sustainability of employee travel. 

Green Campus 

A site plan with green spaces has been completed, including a proposal to add a green side at the pond edge to enhance biodiversity.

The EUR community is increasingly a digital community. Working together, studying, research and the work of the support services are more often taking place from behind a screen. Reliable and safe information services are essential. What’s more, the digital world is continuously evolving and developing. Innovations in education and research require new ways of accessing and handling data.

At the same time, there is a constant stream of new ICT technology that needs to be transposed to and within EUR’s ICT landscape. 

Security 

The ever growing dependence on digital tools means more risks and therefore a greater need for information security. EUR has three key priorities in this area: 

• Robust security within the network and the applications themselves. Security is one of the central design principles in the case of changes to and the implementation of new systems. This is also known as ‘security by design’. Privacy also plays an important role.
• Preventing the employee or student from being the ‘weakest link’ in the security chain. The more aware people are of the possible dangers of their own actions and the easier we can make it for them to properly protect themselves, the lower the risk these users present to the university. This is the thinking behind the ‘Watch your Data’ awareness campaign, which provides information on topics such as better protecting your own hardware.
• Recovering organisational processes and systems as soon as possible in the wake of a cyber attack. In this context, EDIS has drawn up an updated Disaster Recovery Plan. 

A security audit has been carried out according to the SURF Audit method to assess the quality and effectiveness of EUR’s security measures. In addition to the measures within EDIS, this audit also covered those of the faculties, the other Professional Services and the University Library for the first time. The results will be used in 2023 to reassess the existing policy and risk appetite of EUR as a whole. It was agreed within the sector and also within EUR to aim for maturity level 3 on a scale of 5. This needs to be achieved by the end of 2023. 

Education 

Digital tools have become an essential part of education. In the last year, major new applications were introduced with the support of EDIS. These applications are helping to improve and modernise education. They include:

• The new Thesis Management System (TMS) developed by EDIS in collaboration with the faculties. The basic functionalities have been delivered, enabling the faculties to build, manage and use the work flow of the thesis process themselves. This minimal viable product (MVP) is now undergoing thorough testing in a number of faculties. The external party that independently tested the security of this new application had strong praise for the developers. 
• The Open Education API (OO-API) developed by SURF has been linked to Osiris, supporting EUR with future-oriented education. This was done for EduXchange in the first instance, to make it easier for students from other universities to follow education at EUR. However, it makes many applications such as SURFeduhub or RIO possible for the future. 
• EDIS will be offering more and more operating functions as separate modules. The aim is to improve speed and flexibility. International ICT research and consultancy agency Gartner refers to this as the ‘Composable Company’. One example is the web service that can be used to scan for plagiarism by ‘Turn It In’, which will be deployed by TMS and Erasmus School of Law.  

Research  

Rapid developments in technology are changing society’s views on how to organise sound and responsible research. In order to properly anticipate these developments, EDIS invested substantially in the technical support of research in 2022. This involved intensive collaboration with the other services that actively serve the Erasmus Research Service, the University Library and the faculties. These services have teamed up in a partnership called the Digital Competence Centre (DCC). The DCC contributed to: 

• The Research Data Management programme, which makes future Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable and Open Science possible and focuses on the further formation of an EUR-DCC. 
• The Yoda project which, in collaboration with SURF and seven universities, aims to create a safe and responsible environment for cooperation with partners, data management and publication. Yoda enables researchers to safely store data during all phases of research, to control how they share this data with third parties, and to supply this data with metadata to better enable researchers to make their data FAIR. 
• The Up-to-Standard project, which aims to further improve and develop research infrastructure for EUR researchers. 
• The ‘Research Project Portfolio Management’ project, which, amongst other things, will facilitate adequate support for externally financed research programmes. 

It is worth mentioning in this context that EUR’s Dilemma Game App won a Council of Europe Best Practice award for promoting scientific integrity. The Dilemma Game was played as a card game for many years before being digitalised in 2020. This has helped to reach a broader audience outside EUR: the app has already been downloaded more than 10,000 times in a wide range of countries.

Operational management and generic IT  

‘Generic ICT’, the hardware, software and network on which all education, research and operational management applications run physically or in the cloud, forms the basis for all technological advancement and security measures.  

Apart from enabling students and staff to study and work, this ‘generic ICT’ has also had an impact on sustainability. Data traffic and storage involve a high level of power consumption and all associated hardware uses raw materials. In the context of EUR’s sustainability goals, EDIS is therefore taking active measures to reduce this power and raw material consumption.  

A number of key ‘generic ICT’ projects carried out by EDIS in 2022 are:

• The across-the-board installation of all new equipment at EUR’s two on-premises data centres (Rotterdam and Delft). This migration went smoothly with no impact on users. An EUR Azure Landing Zone was also set up to enable faculties, services and EDIS to host their own applications in a Public Cloud environment managed and secured by EUR. The expectation is that EUR will eventually no longer need its own on-premises data centre and all services and applications will instead run entirely in this Public Cloud. The new hardware in the on-premises data centres is much more energy efficient than the old hardware. The migration to the Public Cloud also delivers energy savings. A conservative estimate leads to an energy saving of 30%. 
• EUR introduced Teams Calling at the end of 2022. Not only is this a ‘natural’ amalgamation of communication and teamwork for the users in a single environment, namely Teams, but it also considerably reduces energy and material consumption. We disposed of more than 2300 ‘old’ telephones. Combined, these devices used around the same energy as 190 households per year. 

EDIS provided the ICT infrastructure in the new buildings on campus, including WiFi facilities and audio-visual equipment such as screens and recording equipment for lectures. 

EDIS also achieved key milestones in operational management support. One example is full completion of the project to replace EUR’s CRM system. The same applies to the new timetabling application. Support for HR processes in SAP was also further improved and extended, and a number of key EUR systems were switched to a ‘Software as a Service’ solution. They no longer ‘run’ in the EUR data centre. 

Policy and frameworks 

In 2021, the ‘State of Digitalisation’ (Staat der Digitalisering, SdD) document was completed. This document maps global digital trends in relation to education, research and operations. In 2022, a strategic dialogue was conducted with administrators, deans and members of EUR’s l-community with a view to matching EUR’s capabilities to the wishes and needs identified in the State of Digitalisation document. 

In the context of the national inspection by the Information and Heritage Inspectorate (Inspectie Overheidsinformatie en Erfgoedinspectie), work was carried out under the supervision of the Document Information Management (DIM) department to deliver the Public Sector Information Monitor (Monitor Overheidsinformatie) for EUR in 2022. EUR once again improved on its previous score for quality of information management, in areas such as the use of tools for selection and destruction of government information or the correct use of metadata. 

The project portfolio process introduced in 2020 was developed further. A maturity assessment was carried out at the end of 2021. This led to forty recommendations. Half of these recommendations were implemented in 2022. The other half are scheduled to be addressed in 2023. The aim is to achieve maturity level 3 (on a scale of 5) by the end of 2023.