The parties have decided to include the following text in the preamble to the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU).
University employees deliver academic education, research and impact for the purposes of generating and sharing scientific knowledge. This also involves finding answers to the social issues of today and those of the future. Social and scientific challenges demand increased collaboration and a multidisciplinary and impactful, open scientific practice, partly based on Open Science. This requires a system of recognition and rewards that is appropriate to these challenges. Providing employees with suitable recognition and rewards for their performances, individually and as a team, fosters an inspiring and healthy work environment.
Offering academics room for differentiation in their careers is essential. This particularly concerns offering them options to set different priorities in their individual careers and career stages, in terms of their focus on academic education, research, impact, patient care and leadership. Combined with a stronger focus on teamwork and team spirit, this will be essential to retain our strengths in the future, including on the international stage. This requires a fundamental culture change in education and research and in terms of cooperation in the broadest sense.
The parties to the collective labour agreement recognise the importance of this change, which will in part be implemented on the basis of the nationwide Recognition & Rewards programme. The development and achievement of the envisaged change will primarily be the responsibility of the educational institutions. Exploring, experimenting, inspiring, co-creation, sharing good practices and learning from each other are key elements of this joint programme. Where necessary, the developed innovations will be embedded in and reinforced by sector-wide frameworks.
At this stage, the parties will start with a periodical sector-wide exploration and discussion of developments as part of the Recognition & Rewards programme. The purpose of this is to jointly make preparations for an open exchange of ideas and for any required translation into nationwide frameworks, in good mutual consultation and in line with relevant sector-wide and intersectoral developments.Source: Agreement, Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU), 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 inclusive
