10 October 2022

On Monday 3 October, Minister Dijkgraaf of Education, Culture & Science (OCW) approved the first part of the university sector plans. His approval was based on the positive recommendation of the National Sector Plans Committee concerning the expenditure plans submitted before the summer by the various academic fields. The Minister will make a total of €60 million available for 2022; the remaining funds – a total of €200 million of structural funding – will follow in the spring of 2023.

As you know, the SSH domain has one sector plan for the Social Sciences and one for the Humanities, and also an SSH sector plan for all the SSH domains (Social Sciences, Humanities, Law and Economics, FGGA). The Humanities sector plan provides funds to strengthen research and education in Languages & Cultures and also invests in two additional themes: Human-Centred AI and Cultural Heritage.

What does this mean for the Faculty of Humanities?

The Faculty Board has chosen to use the sector plan funds in ways that will help to alleviate the workload within our teaching. The Minister’s approval means that the funds for 2022 have been definitively allocated, and we can use them to appoint the first lecturers (assistant professors/UDs). We will additionally be appointing a number of postdocs in 2022. The procedures for these appointments are almost finished and the first postdocs will be starting before the end of this year. The focus here is not only on the themes from the sector plan but especially on themes where the Faculty aims to become stronger in the years ahead: methodologies of the Humanities and Environmental Humanities. In the forthcoming period we will also be taking steps to strengthen the communities around the sector plan themes, to further expand collaboration within and outside of the Faculty.

We will provide further details as soon as more information is available.

Read the full press release by the Universities of the Netherlands