The application process for the new vice-president is in full swing, Smits said in the interview. "The last selection round is at the end of October, then we will know who will replace Nicole Ummelen." Smits expects it to be early 2024 before he or she gets started. According to him, there is a lot of interest in the position. "We have had responses from fifty to sixty candidates, even from abroad. So our reputation and fame are good."

Until the Executive Board is complete again, Smits and Lenaerts will temporarily take over the portfolios of the former vice-president Ummelen, together with university secretary Patrick Groothuis. Smits: "I have taken up campus development and knowledge safety, Silvia does personnel management. And because Silvia has an enormous passion for valorisation, she has taken over from me."

The appointment of former dean of IE&IS Ingrid Heynderickx as Integrity Ambassador was also announced. According to Smits and Lenaerts, this is to emphasize the importance of academic values and integrity.

Bureaucracy

Smits and Lenaerts also speak out on a number of topics in which they want to bring about change. Such as the "bureaucratic hassle", which Smits calls even greater here than at the European Commission in Brussels where he previously worked. Smits: "The university is much more complex, partly because of ourselves, but also because of all the rules that the government imposes on us. We need to see where we can taper off so that our people have more time to do their real work."

Lenaerts says she sees a lot of collaboration between faculties and researchers, "but I also see compartmentalization in faculties and services. Different people do more or less the same work, but from different boxes. This can be done more efficiently." According to Smits, internal procedures and working methods need to be revised. "There are undesirable differences between faculties when it comes to, for example, an appointment advisory committee or the PI model (principal investigator, ed.)," says the president of the Executive Board. "We need to simplify it and standardize it."

Governance

Simplifying and working more efficiently are also wishes of the Executive Board when it comes to the governance of our university, the way in which TU/e is managed. "We have many forums in which we meet on the same subject," Smits gives as an example. "We talk to the deans, to the directors, to the institutes. We often talk about the same topic, but never do so with everyone together. This can be done more efficiently."

During the deans' dinner before the summer holidays, that conclusion was endorsed by the deans. "We were happy that there was a lot of recognition among the deans," says Smits. "We have to make the university together. It's not services against departments - we have to do it together." Dean Edwin van den Heuvel and a working group will look at how governance can be better organised.

Smits now sees no reason to make radical changes to the current Institutional Plan. "Fortunately, the deans are of the same opinion. Excellence remains central, and we will look at how we can better attract and retain talent, including by modernising our research infrastructure."

Departments should also think more than ever about their contribution to society. "How are they going to help shape the transitions? We need to think more from the outside in," says Smits.