For computer science, the figures are much more dramatic, in general and in particular at the department of Computer Science of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam where the significant efforts of the past years led to a disappointing 18.2% (2) of the academic staff being female from assistant professor to full professor. As known, there is a glass ceiling hindering women students to progress further after obtaining a PhD degree (for which the figures in the same year were 29.5%).
To change this gender imbalance, so far, the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam created the Fenna Diemer-Lindeboom (FDL) fellowship which however is limited to internal promotion to full professorship.
We propose to follow the example of many other universities in the Netherlands (3), and start a new fellowship programme that aims at attracting excellent women candidates for academic positions especially at the level of assistant professor and associate professor.
Lovelace Fellowship Programme
The fellowship general overview:
The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam has initiated the Lovelace Fellowship programme specifically for Computer Science to promote gender diversity and bring a gender-balanced contribution to society in their own academic field. It aims to attract outstanding female talents with leadership potential and offers a career-track appointment in combination with a starter package financed via starters grant. This programme is intended for ambitious women in academia, research institutes or industry who have a PhD and aspire to become Assistant- or Associate Professor and potentially grow towards a full professorship. The fellowship is named after Ada Lovelace (4), known as “the first computer programmer”.
The target applicants:
Applicants must be outstanding researchers in priority areas within the Faculty of Science and the Department of Computer Science. The applicants have the ambition to develop a research track and research group. Educational experience and affinity for teaching are also given high priority. The Lovelace Fellows are expected to participate in and contribute to the development of the department’s teaching programme, so a broad scientific vision on research and education and organisational involvement including managerial tasks are expected.
Focus and timeline:
The fellowship programme started in Fall 2023, with a pilot for five years in the Faculty of Science and in particular the Department of Computer Science.
The fellowship programme is implemented for the recruitment of talents for part of the open positions at the department of Computer Science, next to special positions where applicable.
(1) LNVH, Women Professors Monitor 2023, https://www.lnvh.nl/monitor2022/EN.html
(2) Figures for the latest national Research Assessment Computer Science - Self Assessment CS VU 2015-2020
(3) LNVH Career Guide - Fellowship Programs https://www.lnvh.nl/career-guide-fellowships
(4) About Ada Lovelace https://www.biography.com/scholars-educators/ada-lovelace