Nine new associate professors appointed

Nine new associate professors were appointed at UMC Utrecht on 9 December 2022. The talented staff have been appointed based on performance. They also have qualifications in research, teaching and management.

Every year, UMC Utrecht promotes a number of researchers to associate professor but this year things went differently. In fact, to make the full breadth of academic activities ‘assessable’, UMC Utrecht drew up six different academic career profiles. All candidates chose a profile and were assessed accordingly.

Divisions and strategic teams nominated candidates as associate professor with the following profiles: Implementation Researcher, Clinical Researcher, Exploratory Researcher or Methodology & Technology Researcher. Two other profiles, Academic Educator and Valorisation Researcher, have not yet been used this year.

“With the new career profiles, all these diverse people can be valued and have careers,” says Rinze Benedictus, research staff adviser in the Research Office. He is a member of the career paths committee that developed the profiles. “With the profiles, we avoid having one universal, measuring rod that seems objective but in fact puts some disciplines or academic activities at an a priori disadvantage.” UMC Utrecht is taking a future-proof approach here.

All candidates filled in the qualification portfolio that suits them. For example, a clinical researcher bridges the gap between clinic and science. He does different work and achieves different results than, say, an Exploratory Researcher or an Academic Educator. Each candidate gave a brief summary of their specific knowledge or expertise. In all profiles, the candidates also described their leadership qualities, development, and internal and external collaborations.

New associate professors

The new associate professors within UMC Utrecht consist of nine colleagues (6 women and 3 men), from 5 divisions and 5 strategic themes (see table).