Jasper's Day
Jasper Knoester is the dean of the Faculty of Science. How is he doing, what exactly does he do and what does his day look like? In each newsletter, Jasper gives an insight into his life.
Thursday 20 June
'I am having breakfast at 7.15 AM in Zurich, with a dozen colleagues from Leiden. We are attending the semi-annual congress of the alliance UNA Europe in which we are one of 11 partners. I arrived yesterday, some others have been there a day longer. This is a good time to sit together for a while, before we fan out to various sessions. Experiences from yesterday's various meetings are exchanged and a number of objectives for Leiden are discussed.
At 8.30 AM, I start the Executive Workshop on the strategy for external fundraising. I make a plea to jointly submit a large Co-fund proposal within Horizon Europe, in which my target is to acquire around 100 PhD positions. These can then be deployed by the six 'self-steering committees' of UNA Europe, the communities of researchers who shape the joint content strategy. From my experience with international research collaborations, I know that these can be set up well with PhDs. Preferably with PhD students supervised in two different places (so-called co-tutelle) or pairs of PhD students working complementarily on a programme.
I get support for my plea, but not everyone is enthusiastic. Co-fund is a programme that requires cash matching (an own financial contribution) and that is a difficult bump for some partner institutions. In a big meeting like this, it's hard to get out of these kinds of discussions, but from the conversations in the breaks later in the day, I gather that the seed has been planted and there is definitely a "coalition of the willing" that wants to join in. Other speakers in the session focus on philanthropic fundraising and on recruitment based on national programmes. Certainly the former shares interesting experiences.
In the second half of the morning, I read the pieces that will be reviewed in the afternoon. Meanwhile, I am in contact with Pieter Schipper and Anouschka Versleijen (director Luris), who are working very hard in Leiden on our proposal for the national Beethoven programme, aimed at strengthening the labour market for the microchip industry. Tomorrow is the deadline and there are still robust discussions with other parties about what our input might be. What is nice is that internally we have developed a good idea about what we want and can contribute: a solid increase in master's enrolment in physics, astronomy, chemistry, computer science and mathematics, achieved by setting up special tracks strongly focused on an outflow to industry. Even if we did not receive any funds from the programme, I think it would still be worth taking steps in the proposed direction.
After lunch, there are two big meetings, focusing mainly on research strategy. We commit to key points: joint research funds, 'seed funding' for small collaborative projects, joint training of PhD students and summer/winter schools. Afterwards, we dine in the library of the Faculty of Law at the University of Zurich. Very special to eat in a library, and then also in a rarely beautiful, modern library, situated in a classical building. I chat with many colleagues and in the meantime do the final pushing with our rector Hester Bijl to make sure our contribution to Beethoven lands well.
Back at the hotel, I help Jasmijn remotely with a few passages in her profile paper. The topic is health problems caused by a dysregulated biological clock. It turns out that a bad sleep rhythm can have bigger consequences than I thought. As I have to get up early tomorrow for the return trip, I follow the implicit advice and turn off the lights before midnight.'