# Helmholtz AI special edition seminar: </br> Joris van Eijnatte

###### tags: `HelmholtzAI`

[ToC]

## :memo: Seminar details

**13 Jan 2022, 11:00 - 12:00**

- Speaker: **Joris van Eijnatte**, CEO & Prof. Digital History at the Netherlands eScience Center
- Title: **An overview about The Netherlands escience center.**
- Chair: **Peter Steinbach**, Head of Helmholtz AI consultant team @ HZDR

### VC details

Access to online venue:
https://bluejeans.com/359354448/7471

Meeting ID: 359 354 448
Passcode: 7471
Dial from phone: [phone] (Germany (Frankfurt, German)), +41.43.508.6463 (Switzerland (Zurich, German))

## :memo: Notes

:::info
:bulb: Write down notes and/or interesting information of the seminar. For example, observations auxiliar to the content which is not contained in the slidedeck.
:::

- Mission
- Ambition 1, 70 % of money investment
- research software
- Ambition 2 == training, 30% of budget invested here

- strategic priorities
- institutional alignment => work is exclusively demand driven
- s/w sustainability => input given my evaluation

- means
- open calls
- collaborations
- workshops & training
- community building

- RSE work across a matrix of domains and sections
- section
- community & dissem
- calls and projects
- knowledge dev / technology

- term RSE used very loosely
- mostly postdoc/assoc professor level (from disciplines/domains)
- minority from computer science (as many CS people move to industry)
- tenury given after first 2 years
- RSEs are hard to find (mentioned high quality criteria)
- make sure, that people are equipped to move ahead/out-of escience center
- people moving back to pure academia positions (tied to current discussion in NL about reward systems in science)
- industry

- evaluation process for replies to project call
- process outsourced to Netherlands Research Council (NRC) as they have transparent and fair process
- NRC is paid for this by escience center
- if open call is over subscribed, **random selection** selects applications to move forward
- directors of escience center are on the assessment board to make sure

- project life cycle
- application does not need to detail how to solve a problem
- technical solution (software, ML, ...) is implemented AFTER project has been granted (science kick-off)

## :question: Questions for the speaker

:::info
:bulb: Write down any questions or topics you wish to discuss during the seminar
_(either with your initials or anonymously)_
:::

> Leave in-line comments! [color=#3b75c6]

:arrow_right: Peter Steinbach - on project calls: the total budget of a "larger" project is 2.5 personyears (so either one extra person for 2.5years or 2 people for 1.15 years)

:arrow_right: Peter Steinbach - what are your key performance indicators internally?
- get away from a target related system (doesn't work in academia)
- relaxed assessment based on different aspects
- less: publish or perish

:arrow_right: Peter Steinbach - what are your key performance indicators that your funders put on you?
- work with assessment protocoll set by ministry and others
- more relaxed, gives escience center the freedom to define KPIs on their own (with justification)
- e.g. software as output is as valuable as a nature paper
- currently being worked on ->

:arrow_right: Alvaro - how are project retrospectives in ML are done?
- just being ramped up
- can put us in touch
- new thing: programme managers -> are doing these evaluations

:arrow_right: Alvaro - how are the teams structured? (size, what profiles)
- creation of teams is rather new
- not always teams are required, sometimes RSE also just go alone (try to cater to everyone)
- if a project is pursued alone, there needs to be a backup
- teams: 4-6 people with variations
- RSEs can decide on their own, which teams they like to participate in
- profiles: depend on projects -> RSEs decide on their own including a justification
- projects 2 kinds of
- early career: 1 personyear
- larger: 2.5 personyears (can take 2-4 years)
- hours put into the project count

:arrow_right: Alvaro - license? MIT or BSD licenses for academic s/w?
- idea: as open as possible
- depends on the use case (dependencies)

:arrow_right: Alvaro - initiatives to analyze dependencies?
- not in our mandate
- careful how budget is invested
- small R&D budget -> careful in investment
- annual escience center symposium -> this year is special: s/w sustainability and funding for it

:arrow_right: Stephan Janosch - Where Instructor Trainers educated with carpentries?
- yes, certified trainers from the carpentries
- copy their model: train the trainer ourselves

:arrow_right: Olav Zimmerman - 50% on location is organized how?
- max driving distance is 2-3 hours by car
- depends on locality -> local time can be cluster
- depends on the RSE and the applicants (family situation etc)
- commute and costs for stay are funded by escience center

:arrow_right: Olav Zimmerman - universities try to build up their own expertise rather than asking for external support? (competing interests)
- escience centers mission is temporary from the start
- mission of escience center: empower people to not need the escience center anymore
- escience is typically some steps ahead

:arrow_right: Lena Hersemann - how do you maintain the s/w after a project?
- we don't do this -> not in our mandate
- use the instruments (open-source, training, internal reuse on the next project, ...) to make s/w and community around self-sufficient
- motivate scientists to use s/w in teaching (e.g. a masters course ...)

## :question: Your Feedback

:::info
:bulb: Write down your feedback about the seminar
_(either with your initials or anonymously)_
:::

### Share something that you learned or liked :+1:

- ...

### Share something that you didn’t like or would like us to improve :-1:

- ...

:::info
:pushpin: Want to learn more? ➜ [HackMD Tutorials](https://hackmd.io/c/tutorials)
:::