How does a professor get selected

How to pursue an academic career in life sciences?

Brussels, September 11th, 2014

Peter Marynen

Departement of Human Genetics

How does a professor get selected

Program:

• … highly relevant research questions

• How to publish …

• … the importance and side-effects of mobility

• Using social media to build …

• Research strategy & management

• The importance of international collaborations

Insights in the institutional point of view

How a professor gets appointed

Open position

Publication/search

Advices

Decision

Government commissioner

Open procedure

Documentation of advice

Arguments

Documentation of advice

Arguments

• Department

• Research unit

• Institution

• Department

• Research unit

• Faculty

• Group

• Institution

• Group

• Institution

How a professor gets appointed

Open position

• Budget • Based on facts an strategy (ZAP – BOFZAP)

• Departmental board – talk to the head of the department

• Institution

• Content • Academic position: multidimensional

• Life Sciences: emphasis on research

• Increasingly based on departmental long term strategy • No ‘successors’

Talk to the research units

• research

• teaching

• service to society

How a professor gets appointed

Publication/search

• It is a competition

• no appointment of single candidates

A lot of places are looking for talent

Look around – outside of your intitution

Develop/use an international network

How a professor gets appointed

Advices (formal)

• Who? • ZAP: Advisory Committee

• Level: Group of Faculty

• BOFZAP: Research Council • Level: Institution

Advisory Committee

• Based on: • Your application

• A seminar/presentation

• Evaluation by external experts/department head/search committee

• What? • Research/research potential

• Didactic potential

• Leadership potential

How a professor gets appointed

Criteria - general

• Evaluation by interdisciplinary panels, at the level of the faculty or

higher

• Objectivity/same standards across the institution

• Committees use proxys (publications, citations, projects, international

experience ...) but look for competences/traits

• No criteria are written in stone, numbers and facts are interpreted

• Career duration is taken into account

How a professor gets appointed

Publications: more than numbers

• Quality:

• Conceptual innovation, methodological breaktrough,

interesting/relevant question,...

• Scope of publication list ...

• Lucky shot?

• Contribution of applicant

• Author order is important and domain dependent

• ‘Contributing sciences’ (bioinformatics, pathology, imaging, ...):

also first author methodological papers

• Publications with different authors/groups

‘5 most relevant contributions’ : focus on the above

How a professor gets appointed

Internationalization: more than distance, but …

• Mobility: a key element • Independence

• Networking

• Starting a new field

• Acquiring new technologies

• Different models are possible • e.g. several short stays

• Intellectual distance is the issue • Publications (different authors)

• Fellowships, grants

• Quality • being accepted in a top institution can be a quality label

How a professor doesn’t get appointed

Irritant • Sloppy applications

• Unnecessary long applications (what is important?)

• Window dressing

• Boring presentations (didactic qualities)

Yellow flags • Unexplained gaps in the career/unnecessary long careers

• Incomplete reference lists

• References writing about lack of team spirit

- be independent, but work in a team -

Killers • False information (however small …)

• Deadlines

Follow the

instructions

How a professor gets appointed

Decision

• Advisory Committee (and Research Council) provide a classification

(or a score) for the applicants, together with a written justification

• The decision is a two step proces

• Extended Executive Commitee of the Group makes a proposal

• Institutional policy can play a role, but it needs to be justified

by objective arguments, checked by the Governement

Commissioner

• The Academic Council takes the decision, which becomes final

after the government Commissioner approved the whole

procedure.

Finally: Key factors for success

• Its is your career – your choice

• Plan ahead

• Your interests are not necessarily those of your research unit: look for a

balance

• Focus on

• research - scientific output will follow

• professional skill development

• Think independently – work in a research unit

• Networking

• Explore new territories

• New questions, approaches, technologies

Good luck with one of the nicest careers possible