Conversations started on assessment of collaborations

The roundtables and the submission of a draft recommendation are part of the initiative to supplement the existing assessment frameworkExternal link for research collaboration with additional criteria to make it more widely applicable. The current framework does not provide for the assessment of collaborations relating to education and focuses primarily on new (research) collaborations. When a country or region goes to war, it may be necessary to also assess existing collaborations in the new circumstances.

An important topic of the roundtable discussions is what the specifically invited participants need in order to properly assess international collaborations in such a complex context. Regular updates following the content of these discussions will follow via internal channels. The draft recommendation resulting from the roundtable discussions will eventually be submitted to the entire academic community. In this way everyone will get a chance to contribute their thoughts.

Ethical frameworks

The supplemented assessment framework should provide a clear action perspective for the academic community: researchers, faculty, students and staff. At the same time, the framework should also be useful in interactions with (potentially) new and existing partners and provide transparency about the ethical and moral assessment frameworks used by the UvA when entering into or continuing collaborations.

Sharp focus on safeguarding core academic values

The Board and deans are well aware that supplementing the framework is not directly the answer critics of collaborations with Israeli research groups and universities are waiting for. At the same time, there are also those in our community who have doubts about the usefulness of boycotting all organisations from a country, as this also limits exchange with colleagues who contribute to critical scholarship.

Moreover, suspending cooperation at this level would be at odds with academic freedom. The trajectory now laid out allows for both perspectives to be weighed carefully. In any case, the recent protests have once again made it clear how important it is for the UvA to transparently shape careful decision-making on international cooperation in times of conflict. In doing so, the university naturally remains extremely keen on safeguarding core academic and ethical values and ruling out possible involvement in human rights violations and war crimes. 

Composition of the working group

Against this background, the intention is to supplement the assessment framework quickly, but with due care and with an eye for quality and impact. To lead this process, a broad academic working group is now at work, consisting of: Chair Yvonne Donders (Professor of International Human Rights and Cultural Diversity, Faculty of Law), Aart Nederveen (AMC, Professor of Applied MR Physics), Arno Kourula (Professor of Business & Sustainability, Economics and Business), Göran Sluiter (Professor of International Criminal Law, Faculty of Law), Jeroen de Kloet (Professor of Globalisation Studies, Faculty of Humanities), Marlies Glasius (Professor of International Relations, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences), Jan de Boer (Professor of Theoretical Physics, Faculty of Science) and Carlos Reijnen (Associate Professor of Eastern European Studies, Faculty of Humanities).