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We are very excited to announce the launch of our new PostdocNL website! Designed with postdoctoral researchers in mind, the platform offers improved functionality, a fresh look, and new tools to help you connect and grow in your career. What’s New? Knowledge Base Access a growing collection of resources on [...]

Postdoc Appreciation Week NL 2025 – Final Programme   From 15–19 September 2025, the Netherlands will host the first edition of Postdoc Appreciation Week NL (PAW_NL), with events taking place across the country. This is your opportunity to connect, learn, and celebrate the contributions of postdoctoral researchers at both local [...]

Inspired by the celebration of Postdoc Appreciation Week in a.o. the USA, UK and Germany, Postdoc Support Staff from Dutch Academic institutes, incl. Amsterdam UMC, Erasmus MC, Radboud UMC, MUMC+, UMCG, RUG and Postdoc NL jointly invite research institutions, postdoc coordinators, and research administrators across the Netherlands to contribute to [...]

No matter if you are already on the job for years or about to make the first steps, you cannot miss BCF Career Event on 23 May in Utrecht if you want to develop your career in Life Sciences further.  The programme features i.a. sessions about leadership, becoming your own boss as entrepreneur, work-life-balance, effective body language use, [...]

The national Programme Social Safety (Programma Sociale Veiligheid) has officially launched a new funding round to support initiatives that improve social safety in academia. Since this is a highly relevant topic for our community, we encourage postdoc organizations to submit their ideas to improve the social safety of early-career researchers. [...]

  NWO Insight Out is a career and networking event for women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines. On three consecutive Thursdays in November, guided by various topical themes, a platform will be provided for women to connect with each other.   This event provides an opportunity for [...]

The current mental health status of early-career researchers in academia is disconcerting, with over half of all postdocs and PhD candidates being at risk of developing serious mental health issues. Common underlying causes seem to be related to high work pressure, publication/grant pressure, lack of academic career prospects/support, and [...]

Please have a look at our newsletter, with updates on current postdoc-related issues such as diversity and inclusion, contract extension after pregnancy leave, and a policy letter by the ministry of OCW on (new) funding tools for academia. Do not hesitate to contact us in case of any questions, remarks [...]

“Een belachelijke korting van 149 miljoen, terwijl een investering van 1,1 miljard euro structureel nodig is om tot een Normaal Academisch Peil te komen.” Dat stelt Pieter Duisenberg, voorzitter van de Vereniging van Universiteiten namens de 14 universiteiten, WOinActie, de vakbonden, de studentenbonden en diverse andere organisaties verenigd onder de [...]

The past months, Dutch media have reported repeatedly about researchers receiving intimidating or threatening responses upon their participation in a public debate. ScienceGuide is collecting the experiences of academic researchers with this issue study its frequency and implications, as well as find out whether researchers feel supported by their institute [...]

Jumpstart your business career in Life Sciences! Are you a PhD student, a postdoc or a Master student and are you interested to pursue your career in one of the many Life Sciences companies in the Benelux? Do you want to know more about your career opportunities and learn about [...]

BCF Career Event Online: Discover Your Career Path in Life Sciences with BCF Career Are you a newly graduate looking for your first job, a (young) professional looking for the next step in your career or simply interested in enhancing your career? Join BCF Career Event Online on 12 May [...]

On May 5th/6th 2021, the association for Professionals in Doctoral Education within Europe (PRIDE-Network Association) organizes its FREE annual conference, themed „Giving a voice to professionals in doctoral education – how do we communicate and position ourselves?“*. With this conference PRIDE wishes to shed a light on the topic of [...]

Join the work-sessions of the National Survey on Research Integrity! In Oct 2020, the National Survey on Research Integrity (NSRI) was launched, a national online questionnaire across all universities and university medical centers in the Netherlands, across all academic ranks and disciplinary fields. This is the largest survey to-date worldwide [...]

We are happy to announce the new dates for Insight Out. The event will now take place on 4 Mondays in June 2021: 7, 14, 21 and the 28th from 1 to 3.15 p.m. CET. Registration is now open! Insight Out – Inspiring women in STEM is a career event [...]

WOinActie heeft samen met De Jonge Akademie, Promovendi Netwerk Nederland,de Landelijke Studentenvakbond en PostdocNL haar Toekomstvisie WOO gepubliceerd waarin ze uiteen zet wat de belangrijkste problemen in het wetenschappelijk onderwijs en onderzoek zijn en hoe die op te lossen zijn. Om het wetenschappelijk onderzoek en onderwijs toekomstbestendig te maken, zijn drie dingen nodig: [...]

The Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) has asked BKB [https://bkb.nl/english/] to support a broad coalition in organizing an ‘Alarm Day’ on 6 April to press home the lobby of the VSNU, universities and trade unions. The entire academic community will stand united on this: staff, administrators, alumni, trade [...]

The ISE, Initiative for Science Europe, gives policy advice at the European level about issues in academia. The ISE Researchers’ Careers Task Force has been conducting a long reflection on the organisation of academic research in Europe, with a focus on the systemic structural changes that will be necessary for [...]

We are delighted to announce that registration for Insight out 2021 is now open! Insight Out – Inspiring women in STEM is a career event for women in exact, technical and natural sciences. The third edition takes place online in the afternoons of  1, 8, 15 and 22 of March 2021, from 13:00 – [...]

The Association for Professionals in Doctoral Education (PRIDE network) aims to be the leading professional resource for the advancement of professionals in doctoral education. Due to high demand, they are doing a follow-up webinar to the December 2, 2020 PRIDE webinar in which they explored the topic “Careers in academia: [...]

Enhance your career prospects in academia Are you a PhD student, postdoc or starting group leader and do you want to enhance your career prospects in academia? Do you wish to improve one of the most vital skills of succeeding in science? Then join the BCF Grant Application Course on [...]

Jumpstart your business career in Life Sciences! Are you a PhD student, a postdoc or a Master student and are you interested to pursue your career in one of the many Life Sciences companies in the Benelux? Do you want to know more about your career opportunities and learn about [...]

Kick-start your career in European Life Sciences! Are you a PhD student, a postdoc or a Master student and are you interested to pursue your career in one of the many European Life Sciences companies? Do you want to know more about the European business field and your career opportunities? [...]

On Monday 28th of September, YAE, Eurodoc, and MCAA presented their analyses about the impact of Covid-19 on EU researchers in an online press conference. For who is interested, they posted a recording of this on YouTube. Despite the short notice and only 3 days of promotion, there were 328 [...]

All members of the Dutch research community are invited to the NSRI Launch Symposium on October 15th, 2020. ​​Held both in Amsterdam and online by livestream, this symposium explores the concept of research integrity and why the NSRI initiative is the beginning of a journey towards better research practice for [...]

The global coronavirus outbreak has had a negative impact on researchers, the progression of their work, and their careers. Recent budget cuts are expected to have significant additional consequences on young researchers. Ironically, not a cent of the 750 Billion EUR from the Next Generation EU fund will be invested [...]

During the opening of the academic year on 31 August, scientists will cycle the Tour of Academics between two universities. In doing so, the Algemene Onderwijsbond (AOb), WOinActions and the FNV want to attract more attention for the high amount of temporary contracts at Dutch universities, and the need for [...]

Prepare for the 2nd half of 2020 with a career plan and enhanced skills! We know 2020 is far from going as planned for most of us. At BCF we want to give you the chance to come out of lock-down with a better vision for your career and new [...]

Door de COVID-19-crisis ligt veel onderzoek stil. Onderzoekers hebben geen toegang meer tot labs of collecties, kunnen geen data verzamelen, of zetten zich in het ziekenhuis in. Dit heeft een grote impact op het Nederlandse onderzoek en plaatst onderzoekers voor grote uitdagingen. In het bijzonder is er aandacht voor de [...]

Update 01-04-2020: adjusted date (postponed due to COVID-19 crisis). Do you know how to be the best version of yourself, show all your potential and grow and prosper together with the Life Sciences? Experienced professionals, starters and students will get the opportunity to unlock their potential at the biggest career [...]

The Covid-19 crisis forces society to take a likely long break. It is inevitable that much human and social damage will occur. To gain a better understanding of what is going on with postdocs in times of the corona crisis, we ask you to fill in a few questions via [...]

What is going to determine your career choices as a PhD graduate? Your knowledge, your capabilities, opportunities that just happen to arise? This 2-day retreat challenges you to discover your PhD Power and the internal factors that drive you in what you do. The question then becomes: To what extent [...]

This survey aims to investigate research practices from the perspective of Research Integrity. The adoption of Research Integrity and its practices among PhD candidates, Early-career researchers, and Senior researchers in Europe is insufficiently mapped. Therefore, our team would like you to invite to fill on this anonymized questionnaire, which takes [...]

Academia is a ‘soul-sucking machine’. Having a family, writing grants, publishing papers, and coping with all the administrative work (admin, students, teaching, training) that we have is just too much. In order to win grants, especially the ones offered by the NWO, I have to have more and more papers, [...]

Have you ever tried to explain to the public what you do for a living? And, how easy was it? Not much, right?! We know how you feel. Depending on your mood and who is asking, you might sound like you are speaking in a different boring language, or like [...]

BioBusiness Summer School is an introductory course for academics who are contemplating a career switch to industry and young professionals in their first industry jobs. This course will help you jumpstart your business career in the Life Sciences industry. During the five day programme you will learn the basics of the [...]

What is going to determine your career choices as a PhD graduate? Your knowledge, your capabilities, opportunities that just happen to arise? This 2-day retreat challenges you to discover your PhD Power and the internal factors that drive you in what you do. The question then becomes: To what extent [...]

They would like to further develop their Research Cloud service, which is a virtual research environment, portal, and platform enabling collaborative working across institutes. Would you like to test the Research Cloud, and provide SURF with feedback on how it can help you create new workspace and choose collaborations, software, [...]

What if you could design something that boosts career orientation for PhDs and postdocs? Something that would help you explore different career opportunities, outside-of-academia options, focusing on all the different types of places where you and your talents can flourish. On Friday the 22th of March, from 1.30 pm to [...]

One of the ambitions of the National Platform Open Science is to support researchers in the open science transition. We hereby kindly ask you to help us with that!   The National Platform is setting up a registry of speakers on its website www.openscience.nl to spread knowledge and experiences in [...]

The Vox magazine wrote an article on the new Vidi policy and its consequences for employment: https://www.voxweb.nl/international/still-many-questions-about-new-vidi-policy. According to Sebo Uithol, postdoc at the Donders Centre for Cognition, “There’s now a risk that institutes won’t allow their internal researchers to submit an application,” a concern shared by many others. What [...]

Mark your calendar on Thursday 24 May to visit the 14th edition of BCF Career Event! This is the largest career fair in Europe for Life Sciences, Chemistry, Food & Pharma.   A visit to BCF Career Event offers you: - Over 80 exhibitors and employers on the exhibition floor [...]

Our chair Christina Helbig and Léon Ouwerkerk from CWI, the national research institute for mathematics and computer science in the Netherlands, discuss the challenges of career development for PhD students and postdocs (video in Dutch). What are the most important challenges, how to deal with those, and what inspired them [...]

Do you wish to further your career and increase your knowledge on the development of novel medical interventions? Paul Janssen Futurelab Leiden is offering two members of PostdocsNL free 'seats' to their Clinical Development course. The online course starts April 9 and scholarships are available. For more info visit their [...]

The first meeting for the local network in Utrecht will be this month!   You can register for free at: http://bit.ly/PNUstart   Postdoc Network Utrecht aims to connect all life science postdocs (and also assistant-professors and other interested scientific personnel) to unite them, help with career development and act as [...]

Parliamentary questions have been asked about the postdoc situation, let the Minister of Education, Culture, and Science @ivanengelshoven know that you want those questions answered.   Share or like our status update: https://twitter.com/PostdocNL/status/963030214468136960, that will really help, or tweet yourself to the Minister @ivanengelshoven. Let's speed up the change.   [...]

The research by the CWTS Institute at Leiden University that we mentioned below (The career of postdocs is largely dependent on coincidence) is taking effect. The rector of Leiden University has indicated that he will take action as a result of this research and Frank Futselaar of the SP wants [...]

What does it mean to be a postdoc? Have you ever wondered if you're the only one feeling overwhelmed by your workload and lack of career perspective? Or do you feel making the next career step is really easy for you?   Researchers Teelkens and Van der Weijden conducted a [...]

Part of the PostdocNL board met up for another inspiring working day. Here we brainstorm and get things done for postdoc career development.   Eelco is setting up a postdoc network in Leiden, Nicoline is establishing one in Utrecht. This week we will be contacting all the HR departments at [...]

INVITATION PostdocDelft brainstorm session | 22 February 2018   Since postdoctoral researchers are an important part of our community here at the Delft University of Technology and because these starting researchers are at a crucial stage of their scientific career, we would like to establish a postdoc network. For this new [...]

After the initiation of the local postdoc network at the AMC, POSTDOCNL is excited with the first steps being taken to start a local postdoc network at the Delft University of Technology. One of the main ambitions of POSTDOCNL is to unite postdocs in the Netherlands and this local network [...]

Date: 25 – 29 June 2018 Location: Amsterdam, Leiden and Utrecht Registration: via www.biobusinesssummerschool.nl/apply Deadline: early-bird fee until 1st of March. Registration open until 1st of June 2018.   Are you a PhD student, a postdoc or a Master student and are you interested to pursue your career in one [...]

Are you interested in joining us? There is an empty seat available. Mail us at info@postdocnl.com   Join the LinkedIn groupSign up to Mailinglist  

The workload in the academic world is toweringly high. Subsidy applications, administration, education responsibilities, publication pressure, insufficient manpower, it continues to accumulate. Many people work in the evenings, weekends, holidays and sometimes even during illness. Research shows that 20% extra work is done in personal time. For a full-time position, [...]

Of all postdocs in the Netherlands, only a mere five percent can stay in science, 'says Jozien Helleman of PostdocNL. "That means that the remaining 95 percent have to look for other jobs, but that's not that easy."   SoFoKleS, the social fund for the knowledge sector, has committed to [...]

How harmful are temporary contracts in science? Delta explores with postdocs and VAWO, read the article here: delta.tudelft.nl (in Dutch)       Join the LinkedIn groupSign up to Mailinglist  

You are kindly invited to join the first national meeting for researchers on Open Science. The meeting will take place on the 29th of May 2017 and will be hosted at the Aula of TU Delft.   Who should attend? The day will be a great opportunity for all researchers [...]

Biggest career fair in Life Sciences, Chemistry, Food & Pharma Are you orientating on the next steps in your career?  Join  BCF Career Event  on May 11th, 2017 in Jaarbeurs Utrecht. With 2000 visitors and 100 organisations participating annually, it is the largest career event in these sectors in Europe.  [...]

Euraxess, a European network focused on supporting and assisting mobility of researchers, is going to improve intersectoral mobility: employers from the academic world stepping into other sectors. This is not always an easy step to take, as institutes do generally not offer tailor-made support. Furthermore companies are not always aware [...]

This Saturday the board of POSTDOCNL came together again for another fun and productive working day: sitting together with a cup of coffee and brownies to discuss the progress of our aims and work on specific documents. We welcomed two new board members: Dr. Marjoleine Sloos and Mariska van Lier!   Always wondered what [...]

Today we as the board of ostdostdocNL have assembled for a day to work on refining the structure of the organization, moving towards creating a legal entity, and attract funding.   We’re excited that in 2017 POSTDOCNL will become an association with full legal capacity. Can you recommend a notary [...]

New Year’s marks a new beginning. New people to meet, new adventures to enjoy and new memories to create. POSTDOCNL wishes you a great start to 2017! We are here to help you get the most out of your career and look forward to what the new year has to [...]

We have reached 500 LinkedIn members! Thank you for your support, we are the only national postdoc network in The Netherlands and we are proud to represent postdocs.   The past year we have been in contact with many organizations: Dutch Science Organization (NWO), Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers [...]

Upcoming Tuesday November 22nd, PostdocNL will be joining the Postdoc Meeting at the Vrije Universiteit. We will be represented in the panel discussion. After the panel discussion, lead by Rector Magnificus Vinod Subramaniam, there will be interesting workshops for Postdocs of the VU. Attendance to the meeting is free. PostdocNL [...]

Tomorrow, on Friday November 11th, PostdocNL is speaking at the FEDERA day 'Health(y) science: Increasing value, reducing waste'. PostdocNL will emphasize the value of postdocs for the knowledge economy in The Netherlands and advocate for investing in postdocs and their career development because this will be a direct invesment in [...]

Do you have any bad experience with - (temporary) contracts - integrity issues - being treated unequal - a workload that is too high?   Have you felt mistreated as a scientist?   VAWO, the workers union for scientists, calls upon us to report our stories at their ‘meldpunt misstanden': [...]

A very interesting read!   https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2012/may/24/why-women-leave-academia     Join the LinkedIn groupSign up to Mailinglist

What does a local network do? Find out in the infographic about the AMC Postdoc Network. A local network is a strong facilitator to connect postdocs and organize workshops and courses at your own institute.     Join the LinkedIn groupSign up to Mailinglist

No scientific career or tenure without a prestigious grant like a VENI and a list of publications in highly cited journals. Or so it seems. Rathenau Institute and CWTS invite early career researchers who care about science, and feel concerned about the emphasis on excellence, to explore the issue of [...]

PostdocNL is part of the program committee for the FEDERA day 2016 'Health(y) Science; increasing value, reducing waste', and will present on 'PhD beyond science'. When/where: Friday November 11th 2016, Radboud UMC Nijmegen Program: https://www.federa.org/sites/default/files/images/federadag_2016_health-y-_science-_increasing_value_reducing_waste.pdf Registration: https://www.federa.org/federadag     Join the LinkedIn groupSign up to Mailinglist

http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/features/2016/08/alternatives-professorships-academia  

http://www.euroscientist.com/mobility-boost-early-scientific-careers/       Join the LinkedIn groupSign up to Mailinglist

The Dutch Universities (VSNU) and the Labour Unions negotiate on the compensations and benefits of the University staff. The current Collective Labour Agreement (CAO) runs until 1 July 2016 and there is still no agreement on a new CAO, there even is a standoff.   The main bottlenecks in the [...]

The PostdocNL website has a new FAQ section: http://www.postdocnl.com/faq/   To start off with a question that is a concern to postdocs and other temporary scientists is: "I was just told that my contract cannot be extended for the duration of my parental leave; the result of the new WWZ. What [...]

The PCDI is organizing two courses to help final year Ph.D. students and postdocs to stimulate their career development. Have you thought about exploring opportunities outside academia? Then these courses are of interest to you.   Course 1. Employability outside academia (June 21 + Sep 13 + Oct 18) Employability [...]

An interesting piece about the postdoctoral experience! Learn more about how the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Academy of Engineering view the position of the postdoc: http://www.nap.edu/read/18982/chapter/1       Join the LinkedIn groupSign up to Mailinglist

The National Postdoctoral Association (NPA, USA) has released the Advancing Postdoc Women Guidebook. And while the guidebook is primarily intended for women, much of the information—including chapters about career planning and building good mentoring relationships—is relevant for all readers, regardless of gender.   http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2015/10/new-guidebook-aims-help-female-postdocs   Image Credit: Argonne National Laboratory [...]

In het algemeen overleg Wet Werk en Zekerheid (WWZ) van 9 maart bespraken kamerlid Voortman en minister Asscher van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid de gevolgen voor de jonge vrouwelijke wetenschapper.   Onduidelijk is wat de impact van de WWZ is voor het overige wetenschappelijke personeel (WP), zoals postdocs, die tijdelijk [...]

Topic: Healthy Science: increasing value, reducing waste. New insights new challenges.   As part of the program committee, POSTDOCNL aims to bring the postdocs' view on what is healthy science to the attention of Academia as well as policy makers.   Date: Friday 11th November Location: Radboudumc - Nijmegen https://www.federa.org/federadag   [...]

On the 25th of February, the POSTDOCNL network reacted to the request of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment for comments on the ‘Wet werk en zekerheid (WWZ)’; the law that limits the number of temporary contracts an employer can give sequentially to an employee.   Read the document [...]

Dear PostdocNL community,   We draw your urgent attention to the fact that the government is asking for input on the experiences of employees and employers with the ‘Wet werk en zekerheid (WWZ)’, the law that limits the number of temporary contracts an employer can give sequentially to an employee. [...]

The board of POSTDOCNL has been working for you, a new website has been launched at http://www.postdocnl.com and we have been in contact with PCDI, PNN, VAWO, and Federa to discuss our ideas. We have formed four committees with the task to unite and represent postdocs: Committee LEGAL – will [...]

Hoe beïnvloed de huidige wetgeving je werkzaamheden aan de Universiteit, laat je stem horen in de volgende enquête geïnitieerd door het wetenschappelijk bureau van de SP in samenwerking met de Tweede Kamerfractie: https://vragen.sp.nl/index.php/824514     Join the LinkedIn groupSign up to Mailinglist

There is a piece in the NRC next newspaper about the career perspectives of young researchers in which the POSTDOCNL platform is mentioned. Read the article of nrc.nl: Promovendi moeten aan het werk bij bedrijven, maar hoe moet dat?   ... read more >   Join the LinkedIn groupSign up to [...]

Dutch universities still pay too little attention to the career management of PhD candidates and postdocs. Although a large majority of doctoral graduates ultimately find a career outside of academia, there are too many missed opportunities. Focused activities at a national level are necessary in order for PhD candidates and [...]

In our quest to reach out for all postdoctoral researchers, we as POSTDOCNL are facing the problem of none existing definition of a postdoc. What makes a scientist a postdoc?   According to the Rathenau Institute, a ‘postdoc’ is a scientific personnel in the salary scale 10–12 with a temporary contract [...]

An interesting listen, perhaps some ideas will arise from it: CBC Radio – Only 1 in 5 Canadians with PhDs land a tenure-track job in their field.     Join the LinkedIn groupSign up to Mailinglist

The number of people with science doctorates is rapidly increasing, but there are not enough academic jobs for them all. Read more: Nature Editorial: Make the most of PhDs     Join the LinkedIn groupSign up to Mailinglist

Postdoctoral researchers (postdocs) make up a large part of the scientific workforce in academia. However, they are quite invisible as a group for policy makers. To address this, the POSTDOCNL platform has been initiated, with the goal of uniting and representing postdocs from all backgrounds and knowledge institutions in The Netherlands.   POSTDOCNL will [...]