Even now, as Vice Dean for Research, I still apply for funding. A lot of projects. Some people assume that once you move into academic leadership, grant writing becomes something you leave behind. In reality, it is quite the opposite.…
One of my favorite parts of conference travel is not always the conference itself: it is the opportunity to visit colleagues at other universities. Recently, I attended a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. The conference organizers had arranged technical tours, and…
I generally try to live a healthy life. I exercise, I try to eat well, I protect my sleep (or at least, I track my sleep debt and then feel guilty about it), and I know that all these habits…
When I start working on a proposal, I start from a concept note. Over the years, I've settled on the template that I will show here. The overview table is a tip I got from our office of external funding.…
In a world full of sophisticated productivity apps, elaborate note-taking systems, and increasingly complex digital workflows, one of my favorite tools remains remarkably simple: the humble text file. No fancy interface, no synchronization dashboards, no tags or plugins; just plain…
This post is part of the series PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: posts written for the Dutch academic career network AcademicTransfer, your go-to resource for all research positions in the Netherlands. These posts are sponsored by AcademicTransfer, and tailored to those…
Email management habits can become surprisingly inefficient. Two common patterns stand out in particular: people who keep everything in their inbox, and people who carefully move every message into elaborate folder systems. Both approaches feel organized in the moment, but…
Over the years, I have written quite a bit about PhD defenses around the world (and even published some research on the topic, and a book). The final step of the doctoral journey is very different depending on the country…
As I've been working on my think days, I've made it a habit to share the generalized prompts here for anyone who may want to go through this exercise. I design the prompts together with ChatGPT and tailor them then…
I’ve always seen myself as a researcher. My academic journey has been driven by curiosity, data, writing, and mentoring students. University administration? That felt like something for “other people”: the kind of work that happened behind the scenes while I…
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