VUB has taken many measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19. But what are the consequences for our researchers? Vice-rector for research policy Karin Vanderkerken is the best-placed person to answer that question.
What measures has VUB taken for researchers?
“Within the R&D department, we still offer the same services to our researchers. That doesn’t mean, of course, that nothing has changed. Many things have become digitalised, for example all R&D information sessions and training courses, and all PhD defences. And the postdoc Appreciation Day could also take place entirely digitally.
“To facilitate the researchers, we have postponed the internal calls of the Research Council this year, as much as possible. The internal deadlines of FWO projects were also postponed, to give researchers more time. That meant R&D employees had to work at weekends. We have also allocated a budget to finance Covid-19 research at VUB.
“On the evaluation forms for projects and fellowships financed by the Research Council, we have added an extra section where researchers can state if Covid has had an impact on their research, and if so, what that impact is. This will also appear on the progress reports of PhD students and will be taken into account during evaluations. A first investigation among PhD students in the spring, the PhD survey, indicated little impact from Covid-19, but this was of course during the first wave and certainly didn’t give a picture of the long-term impact. Next spring there will be a new annual survey and that will perhaps illustrate the impact better.”
Have you any idea of the possible long-term effects?
“There will be effects, of course, because everyone has been able to do less research. If I look at my own lab, within haemato-oncology, where there would normally be six people allowed in one lab, only two people are now allowed. That’s why everything has to be planned very tightly, and the time spent on campus must be as short as possible. The number of experiments has therefore fallen significantly.
“In the labs where experimental research is carried out, there is often more chance for PhD students to see their promotor. But in the human sciences, for example, many more researchers are at home because teleworking is compulsory unless it’s not possible, partly because of the essential infrastructure needed for experiments. For these PhD students, regular contact with their promotors has really fallen. So we told these students they must get in contact with their supervisors. We wrote separately to promotors to ask them to maintain regular contact with their PhD students. This can be done perfectly well with a Teams meeting, not only to discuss science but also to check on their wellbeing in these difficult times and make it possible to talk about non-work related issues.
“But I’m also thinking about the first-year students who are finding it hard now. They’ve just begun, and haven’t yet found their feet at VUB and in Brussels. We must look out for PhD students too, and certainly international PhD students, particularly those who are newly arrived, who have no social network here yet. They are a group that is often forgotten about. The promotors have an essential role and responsibility here; they know their students. What came out in the survey that we do with doctoral students each year is that the wellbeing of these students can be correlated with good support. In Covid times, this could be via a weekly or two-weekly conversation via Teams in which the results and the planning for the week can be discussed. That gives them guidance, direction and structure, and that can be comforting. Such a conversation doesn’t need to last more than half an hour. Offering such guidance can not only reduce uncertainty and contribute to their wellbeing, it can also relieve loneliness somewhat.”
Should this be something for the longer term too, in the post-Covid era?
“Absolutely. I’m a great advocate for that. In my first term as vice-rector I had a number of conversations with promotors whose contact with their PhDs wasn’t so successful. I could only speak from my own experience. In my lab, students report to their supervisor each week, Covid or not. Every two weeks we have a lab meeting with all the students together, where everyone presents their results. Ten minutes, followed by five minutes of discussion. That way you get a peer review in which other students as well as postdocs and lab technicians can share tips and tricks. It means you maintain a more intense and personal contact.
“I don’t want to put myself forward as the ideal promotor, there are others at VUB who approach it in the same way and perhaps have better practices. But I am in the fortunate situation that I was guided in this way during my own studies, I didn’t discover this approach for myself.”
Is this way of dealing with students something that lots of promotors, lecturers and professors need to learn?
“I think so, yes. It’s also a form of good practice. What you’ve experienced yourself, you can pass on. We organise various training sessions for promotors, not just for ZAP but also for postdocs, on how you can best support PhD students. We even have a charter for a good promotor.”
A number of publications have already appeared on the consequences of the pandemic for scientific research. Vice-rector Vanderkerken is happy to refer to the results of a study of about 25,000 members of their academic community, which was recently published on the website of Frontiers, a leading open access publisher and open science platform.