NWO has sought quotas for diversity in science

Funder NWO has a new program created: Advancing equity in academia through innovation. With 1.3 million euros, research is funded on equal opportunities and integration into the academic world.

“Different perspectives and experiences encourage new ideas and creative thinking, and lead to a better and deeper understanding of topics and issues,” the organization’s press release reads.

Four research projects will start. They “develop, implement and research interventions in the academy,” according to the press release, with the goal of promoting diversity and inclusion. They consider, among other things, differences in perspective, knowledge sharing and breaking with implicit norms.

Most notable is a study on the exclusion of “racialized academic staff” in the Netherlands, i.e. teachers and researchers of color. Mandatory quotas for this group are, according to the project description, “indispensable, as scientifically demonstrated in other contexts”.

The project wants to work on “the large-scale implementation of these quotas”, in particular by setting up a network for racialized staff. She also wants to get an insight into the resistance to such quotas in the Netherlands.

In a interview On the NWO website, director Margot Weijnen explains why she considers the new program important. The subject touches her personally, she says. “When I started my studies at TU Delft, I suddenly discovered what it was like to stand out in the crowd. Suddenly, I belonged to a minority: less than five percent of the students were women .

She also had to deal with prejudice. “At that time, there were always people who subtly suggested that it was not your scientific quality that gave you a certain position, but the fact that you were a woman. There were also a lot of insinuations about the quality of women’s work.