Academic Career Framework

Our people share our intrinsic, pragmatic drive to shape a sustainable future. Every team and every academic contributes in their own unique way. We continuously inspire our team by offering personalised development opportunities and career flexibility, recognising and valuing each individual’s contribution to our collective effort. WUR has joined forces with other Dutch knowledge and research institutions to deliver the Recognition & Rewards programme.

WUR translated these Recognition & Rewards principles into a new career framework: the Academic Career Framework (ACF). This new framework - with three career paths - provides room, within the set boundaries of a career path, for more diversity within a profile and more room to choose for yourself if and when to take a step. This will allow variety in academic work to flourish more.

In addition to the Academic Career Framework approved in 2023, the corresponding ACF Indicators and ACF Regulations were approved in 2024.

Pooling of Dutch resources for better recognition and rewarding of academics

In 2019, WUR joined the Recognition & Rewards programme, a joint initiative of the Association of Universities of the Netherlands (VSNU), the Netherlands Federation of University Medical Centres (NFU), the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw). The position paper entitled ‘Room for everyone's talent’ articulates the principles for achieving a new balance in the way in which academics are recognised and rewarded:  

  • Creating more differentiation in career paths 
  • Putting the emphasis on the quality of work and less on quantitative results 
  • Doing justice to the individual qualities and ambitions of scientists as much as to team performance 
  • Promoting all aspects of open science and  
  • Encouraging high-quality leadership in the academy

Start implementation at WUR

This year's Dies Natalis, on March 9th 2025, marks our start of working with the Academic Career Framework. After years of careful preparation, design, and elaboration, it is now time to actually start working with the ACF. This is our next step towards a culture with more career flexibility, where everyone's personal contribution to the collective outcome is seen and valued. This way of recognising and rewarding applies to academic staff, including temporary lecturers and post docs.