lookingback to the DAMUT Strategy Day 2025

We looked back at the DAMUT Research Strategy Day 2025 and reflect on what has happened since then.

• The Grant Writing Club has been established and meets every first Tuesday of the month. About 10 people are actively participating, the number of participants fluctuates from one meeting to the other due to other responsibilities. We just started with inviting guests who tell us about their experiences - this also attracts non-regular attendees to join the upcoming meetings. We have formed several couples of people who are giving each other feedback on their writings and ideas.
• During the Strategy Day, a bit of individual feedback on the DAMUT Colloquium was given by colleagues, was given by colleagues, but without a clear opinion whether we should focus more on new colleagues or more on big-shot speakers, or on coffee and cake.
  Based on this and further discussions, the organisers propose that the colloquium will be adapted: the upcoming semester will be used to introduce our newest colleagues. From the next academic year on there will be about 7 talks. Each of the three clusters will give two talks informing the rest of the department about current developments, future plans or possible collaborations. The seventh talk is for educational matters e.g. from the FERMAT group.
• A draft of the UT-internal Collaboration Overview website for the intranet has been created. There We will then ask for more input to make it a useful resource to extend your own network by making use of existing collaborations of colleagues.
• Education
  Education and in particular the student inflow was discussed a lot at the strategy day in June 2025. After the strategy day, the educational management team took all the input into account and carefully considered the ideas also in consultation with Marketing & Communication (M&C). Some restrictions on policy, style, budget are made at a central UT level and we have to work with that. As staff we often do not see the online campaign activities as they are not targeted at us, and that the conversion from a possibly interested high school student to a bachelor student involves quite a few steps. In this process, the programme certainly has a role, especially to have an attractive programme.
  • So here is a list of what we are doing:
    • The website for prospective Bachelor students describes the module structure of the programme. We have now added direct hyperlinks to the OSIRIS course descriptions.
    • The feedback and the NSE evaluations ask for more details on internships and what profession our graduates have, and related activities (e.g. Abacus Alumni Talks). We are preparing a findable website with that information to be available in March.
    • At the Open Days, we mention the double-degrees, and so do TCS and AP. We actively coordinate the timetables to avoid scheduling conflicts as much as possible.
    • Next to the Open Days, there is Student-for-a-day and Matching for the final application. We are one of few programmes still having a camp during the introduction week (Kick-In) to create a community among the freshmen.
    • For several Mathematics activities, high school students come to the campus, and we support where possible. These are the regional rounds for Mathematics Olympiad (Gjerrit Meinsma is our contact), Twentse Wiskunde Estafette (run by pre-U) and the AM Talent Programme (by Frederic Schuller).
    • M&C offered to create a Podcast by students similar to other programmes (and study seekers appear to listen to these). We immediately proposed a team of students in July 2025, but the format changed and production is now planned for February 2026.
    • An important site for Dutch high school students is www.studiekeuze123.nl; We appear with terms "mathematics", "applied mathematics" and "wiskunde" (very low though) but not "toegepaste wiskunde" or "technische wiskunde". It is an external party though, and we have mentioned this issue since summer.
  • What is helpful, but requires more discussion and work:
    Better outreach on websites with attractive mathematics and applications. M&C has a strict style, but one particular and successful platform is UT-stories with popular science linked to current news items, where it can be linked to Mathematics. A recent example would be https://www.utwente.nl/stories/wetenschap/714219/sinteressant-hoe-vindt-sinterklaas-de-snelste-route-door-nederland/?tag=digitalisation. If you have an idea for such a story, contact us or M&C.
  • What we are not doing:
    With M&C we discussed if other or more activities at UT would be useful. Resources are simply limited, and the agenda for high school students is already quite full, so rather not more. Information packages for visits to high schools in the region are available, and students are sent to their old high schools. To send colleagues actively is a different thing, it is quite a lot of work, and the effect may not be so tangible. We also recognize that workload related to education is already high; so we are cautious making that a task.
  • For your information. International recruitment is different;
    The Dutch Universities's proposed self-regulation in light of WIB/TAO in 2025 has led UT to abandon Navitas and the Twente Pathway College, and international marketing activities. There is however the Beethoven project aiming to attract students into master's programmes related to ChipTech. Here only specific countries are targeted. Scholarships have been mentioned, but funds for these are scarce.