HR policies for researchers
Faculty HR policies
In 2019 the Amsterdam Law School updated its appointment and career policy for academic personnel (except PPLE). The most important topics in this update are:
- Open recruitment and broad-based selection committees
- Tenure track as a critical career instrument;
- More attention for permanent employment.
Relevant documentation
- Download the Explanatory policy paper for the appointment and career development policy framework for Academic Staff (pdf);
- Download the Appointment and career development policy framework for Academic Staff (pdf).
Quality indicators for legal research
In 2019 the quality indicators for legal research have been adjusted to better assess the quality and the societal relevance of academic research. The indicators should:
- assist researchers in making choices for publication and other forms of output, also in view of their choices for career paths inside or outside the law school;
- provide a basis for assessment of research in annual consultations (jaargesprekken);
- provide a basis for allocation of individual research time;
- inform decisions in the framework of the appointment and career development policy (aanstellings- en loopbaanbeleid), for instance in relation to possible tracks leading to the promotion of individual researchers.
Relevant documentation
- Download the Quality indicators for legal research (pdf).
Ius promovendi
In 2017 the Dutch national law has been adjusted in order to extent the so called right of promotion (‘ius promovendi’) to non-professors. With this adjustment the Dutch academic system is synchronised with other countries/international standards. The UvA chose to extent the ius promovendi to Associate Professors and the Amsterdam Law School has implemented that decision via rules laid down in the Framework for doctoral programmes (2022).
Read more about the Policy Frameworks of the Amsterdam Law School
National and international developments
Within the academic community there is a continuous search for new approaches in order to ‘recognise and reward’ academics. Both universities, university medical centers as well as research institutes and research funders are engaged in this process. Collaboratively they are working on redefining existing frameworks for the recognition and rewarding of academics.
In short, these new approaches cover 3 basic domains:
- Differentiation of career pathways in order to provide academic staff with a choice for specific focus areas – teaching, research, knowledge transfer and/or leadership.
- Renewal of the research assessment processes to create more focus on the evaluation of research quality and impact. The promotion of Open Science is an integral part of this development.
- Team Science. Alongside the recognition and rewards for individual accomplishments, also collaborative efforts and accomplishments of teams should be valued.
Both the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) as well as the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) have signed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). This is a worldwide initiative with the key aim to evaluate research and researchers on their merits (quality and impact), instead of on bibliometric indicators (such as publications and citations). DORA is part of research assessments as it is included in the new Strategy Evaluation Protocol 2021-2027. Besides academic journal articles, other outputs with scientific and/or societal impact should be taken into account when evaluating the quality of a research unit and also open research practices should be valued. Following the protocol, research quality will need to be demonstrated by a narrative argument (case studies).