An anniversary is an occasion for celebrating, but also for looking back, reflecting on what has been achieved, and using this to build and improve towards the future. Last year, NICAS marked its 10th anniversary by reflecting on what had been achieved during that period and how this aligns with the mission it set at its inception. To this end, NICAS opted to undergo an evaluation in accordance with the official SEP guidelines, which are used to assess universities and academic research institutes.
The first step was to draw up a comprehensive self-evaluation, in which all initiatives undertaken between 2015 and 2024 were presented in qualitative and quantitative terms, and in which the organisation itself assessed these initiatives through a SWOT analysis and outlined a vision for the future.
An external assessment committee, comprising Professor Ineke Sluiter (committee chair, Leiden University), Dr. Costanza Miliani, (National Research Council of Italy), Professor Jochen Sander, (Städel Museum Frankfurt) and Aliisa Råmark (PhD-member, Radboud University), studied this self-evaluation and conducted a site visit to speak with the Board, daily management and researchers involved with NICAS. Based on this, a report was drawn up, setting out the committee’s findings and recommendations for the future.
In the words of the committee chair, Professor Sluiter, ‘the committee found that past performance of NICAS in terms of Research Quality and Societal Relevance was impressive. Making full use of various collaborative possibilities, NICAS employs a small staff for a great variety of activities: networking, sharing of ideas and insights, and creating innovative results through the pooling of (intellectual and technological) resources. We encountered various groups of highly engaged and motivated NICAS stakeholders […]. Together they revealed a dynamic and thriving research environment, with interdisciplinarity at its very core.’
NICAS is currently working hard to chart a course for the future, partly based on the results of this assessment. Some new initiatives, such as NICAS On Demand, have already been launched, and more will follow in the future, so keep an eye on us for further updates. In the meantime, everyone can view the self-evaluation and the official assessment report here.