Ancillary activities

• Who have to disclose their ancillary activities?

  Disclosing ancillary activities applies to:

  • academic staff
  • endowed professors
  • support and administrative staff

  The following are excluded:

  • external parties
  • student assistants
  • trainees
  • on-call workers
  • Supervisory Board members

• What exactly are ancillary activities?

  Ancillary activities fit in with the core task of universities to make scientific knowledge of value to society. The Sectoral scheme covering ancillary activities (pdf) has been drawn up on basis of the joint responsibility of universities to be transparent in ancillary activities and to guarantee academic independence.

  Below a few important aspects of the scheme and explanation:

  • Ancillary activities are paid or unpaid activities for third parties that are not assigned and cannot be considered to be assigned in connection with the job, and cannot be deemed to have been assigned. This also applies to positions such as supervisory director, director or partner of companies, foundations or associations. 
  • One does not have to report activities in the private sphere as ancillary activities if it is clear that the activities do not affect the interests of VU Amsterdam, and also have no further influence on the functioning of the employee. Consider, for example, board membership of a sports or neighborhood association. If one performs board work at an organization related to education and research, there may be a risk of a conflict of interest. For this, permission must therefore be requested. If in doubt, the employee can consult the Explanatory notes ancillary activities or else contact their manager.
  • The employee should also verify if their registered ancillary activities also match all entries in the Chamber of Commerce register and on LinkedIn.
  • As a rule, an endowed professor has a main task elsewhere. This main task falls under the Sectoral scheme covering ancillary activities and must therefore be declared and registered as ancillary activities.

• Discuss your ancillary activities with your manager

  One needs prior permission from their manager to perform ancillary activities. After your manager's permission, you register the ancillary activities through the self service Ancillary Activities. Use the blue 'Take action now' button on this page for this.

  In addition to an up to date and complete registration of ancillary activities, it is important to have regular discussions about ancillary activities, for example about new ancillary activities and the scope of ancillary activities. A good moment is during the annual consultation.

• View, register, amend, or discontinue

  Before starting your ancillary activities, you report them to your manager, using the self service 'View, register, amend, or discontinue ancillary activities'. Use the blue 'Take action now' button on this page for this. 

  Your manager gives their digital permission for the ancillary activities, but they may refuse under certain circumstances. In that case, you are not allowed to perform these ancillary activities. 

  You can also use the self service to partially or fully adjust or stop the registration of your ancillary activities.

• Annual task

  At VU Amsterdam, we remind employees via an annual task to verify their registered ancillary activities and to amend them if necessary. This task is sent yearly in April, and is then visible in the task list. Employees will also receive a notification via e-mail.

  In the task and notification, there is a direct link to the self service Ancillary activities, which allows the employee to amend their ancillary activities if necessary or possibly add new ancillary activities not previously registered.

  After the verification and possible amendments, the employee completes the task by answering one of the following options:

  • My ancillary activities were no longer up-to-date and have now been updated
  • My ancillary activities are still up-to-date
  • I have no ancillary activities

  It is then necessary to finish the task via the blue button 'Submit'. 

  In case of new ancillary activities or amendments to existing ancillary activities, the manager will receive a request to approve the ancillary activities.

• Publication of professors' ancillary activities

  VU Research Portal

  In accordance with the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (pdf), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam publishes the ancillary activities of its academic staff. You must use the self-service option View, register, amend, or discontinue ancillary activities to request permission for these activities. Following commencement of employment, your ancillary activities will be automatically published on your personal profile page on the VU Research Portal. There may be valid reasons to refuse publication, but this will always require written approval from your dean. It is then mandatory to upload this approval in the self service. Refusal to publish may also be a reason for the employer not to grant permission for the ancillary activities. 

  Please note: publication of your ancillary activities on the VU Research Portal takes place automatically after you have registered your ancillary activities via the self-service option View, register, amend, or discontinue ancillary activities. Directly registering your ancillary activities via Pure in the VU Research Portal is not allowed, because this way no formal permission takes place and your ancillary activities are not recorded in the personnel information system; both are mandatory. 

  Collected list (endowed) professors

  In the interests of transparency, the ancillary activities of professors and endowed professors is published quarterly in a collected list on VU.nl. In this way, VU Amsterdam makes the independence and impartiality of scientific research at VU Amsterdam transparent and accessible to third parties.

• Change to wage tax and national insurance contributions credit

  Starting or changing ancillary activities may affect your wage tax and national insurance contributions credit. Use the Wage tax and national insurance contributions credit change form (see Report a change to wage tax and national insurance contribution credit) for this purpose.

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