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Rosalind Franklin Fellowship Cofund Programme

Final Report Summary - ROSALIND FRANKLIN (Rosalind Franklin Fellowship Cofund Programme)

1 Introduction

The Rosalind Franklin Fellowship Cofund Programme built on a very successful programme, run by the University of Groningen, the Netherlands since 2003. The programme aims to promote the advancement of talented international researchers at the highest levels of the institution. As such, it attracts the best researchers from all over the world to perform research in their own specific field of interest.
The special focus of the programme is to draw talented female researchers to the university, the ultimate goal being to close the gender gap in all research fields, at all career stages. The RFF Cofund project offered a total of 135 fellow-years for incoming and re-integrating researchers from all over the world. In 2 calls 30 candidates were selected of which 28 participated in the RFF-Cofund project. Two candidates did not fit the Marie Curie criteria but were appointed without Cofund funding.
The RFF fellowship offers candidates a tenure track position to Full Professor but is explicitly not a recruitment scheme for existing positions.

2 Activities
In the project period we launched 2 calls. After an intensive selection procedure in total 30 Fellows were appointed. Two of them did not meet the eligibility criteria of the Marie Curie programme and are thus not included in the Cofund programme. All fellows started their research in Groningen.
In order to strengthen the network of the Rosalind Franklin fellows and their supervisors various activities were offered to them. This included specific workshops on e.g. funding and conferences. Dedicated actions were organised for the dissemination of the RFF/-Cofund programme.
During the project period the project management team submitted the deliverables as described in the project document and had on regular basis contact with the program officer at REA.


3 Results

The Marie Curie Cofund action added substantially to the Rosalind Franklin programme that is unique in its character to promote gender equality at a systemic level and not only at programme implementation level. The programme is set up to support the underrepresented gender at the targeted level in all scientific disciplines at the University of Groningen.
Although the Rosalind Franklin Fellowship Programme is not intended as a recruitment scheme, it does help to appoint and train excellent researchers of the underrepresented gender, thus enabling them to acquire permanent, high-level positions afterwards. The latter is not only beneficial for the University of Groningen but also for the academic community as a whole, as a substantial number of fellows move on to other universities.

Since the start of the project, the Rosalind Franklin Fellowship Cofund Programme has appointed 28 fellows following the described selection procedures.
The fellows have all started at the University of Groningen at different moments. It is difficult to describe their progress in general terms. However, many RF-fellows were awarded with personal research grants and prizes (VENI, VIDI, ERC-starting, Michael Breheny Prize, JSPS fellowship).
Since the start of the project 8 fellows were not Cofunded during the entire contract period. They left the project on different moments in the project period. Three fellows received an ERC grant; unfortunately they were then ineligible for the Cofund programme anymore because of double financing by the European Commission. Five others left the university and continued their careers elsewhere.
Four RF fellows were selected to become members of the prestigious Young Academy of the University of Groningen.
In addition, the Rosalind Franklin Fellows Cofund Programme of the university is often mentioned at national conferences as an excellent example to realize an advancement of women in science.
The University of Groningen aimed at 27% female professors in 2020 but only 23% will be realised in spite of the renowned Rosalind Franklin Program and Cofund project. For that reason the University of Groningen created an incentive fund to set up fifteen new chairs, which will be assigned exclusively to female academics. The chairs are named after the female figurehead of the UG: Aletta Jacobs.


4 Website

http://www.rug.nl/rff



5 Contact

Mr Wiebe Zijlstra, project manager and EU liaison officer

Wiebe.zijlstra@rug.nl
Tel +31 50 3635362


This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 600211