In the near future Hermans will discuss with the universities and the national research organisation NWO the future of the so-called Innovation-Impulse. This is a fund from which young researchers with unorthodox ideas can get money.
Last autumn saw the selection of the first 43 researchers. Candidates were supposed to report to their universities first. They made the pre-selection and sent the chosen plans to the NWO, who made the final choice.
Hermans is not satisfied about how it was done. 'Too much money is going to previously planned programmes', he says in an interview with the magazine 'Onderzoek Nederland' (Research in the Netherlands). 'One is consequently being too traditional.'
Hermans, therefore, agrees with hindsight with the National Postdoc Platform. Already in June the Platform warned that the universities were pre-selecting on the basis of which personnel they could fit in best. Existing research themes often played a large role in the selection. Hermans therefore considers a different procedure. The universities will then no longer be involved and the researchers can take their plans directly to the NWO. Because the selection behaviour of the universities undermines the aim of the Innovation-Impulse: offering opportunity for innovative plans.
The new set-up has already been under discussion between NWO, universities and Hermans. NWO and Hermans are very much in favour, according to an insider, and the universities are not putting up too much resistance.
'It is a good thing, if a postdoc can submit plans quicker', the spokesperson for the Organisation for Universities (VSNU) reacts. 'But is science served by research that is not put into a framework?'
Next month a decision will be made. The second round of selections - now in process - will still follow the old rules.
