Researcher motivation survey Rathenau Institute

16 November 2017

The Rathenau Institute is an important advisor of our government regarding research & development policy and practice. We therefore would like to support the request and hope that you will take a few minutes to share your opinion with the Institute.

Link to the survey

Welcome to the second Researcher Motivation Survey. The previous survey took place in 2013. The Dutch Government then presented its Vision for Science 2025 policy plan, based in part on the outcomes of that survey. In other words, the survey gave researchers the opportunity to provide input into government policy. Four years later, it is once again time to ask researchers what motivates them. After all, much has happened in the meantime. There has been widespread discussion of the pressure to publish, the underappreciation of teaching, and the value of your work for society, both in the private and public sector. We are eager to hear what you find important in your work as a researcher.

Besides asking you what motivates you in your research work, we also have questions about international mobility and knowledge transfer. In this survey, we refer to the definition of knowledge transfer – also known as valorisation or knowledge utilisation – used by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science: ‘the process of creating value from knowledge by making knowledge suitable and/or available for economic and/or societal use and translating that knowledge into products, services, processes and entrepreneurial activity.’ Knowledge transfer involves the economic utilisation of knowledge and the use of knowledge to solve societal problems or to contribute to public debate (Wetenschapsvisie 2025). Each field of science does this in its own way.

All responses are confidential and will be anonymised. Results will be reported only by type of institution, in other words as the totals for all universities of applied sciences, research universities, university medical centres or public knowledge organisations.

Time investment: The survey will take you about 15 to 20 minutes to complete. Choose a moment to complete the questionnaire at once, answers cannot be saved to complete the questionnaire at a later time.

Do you work for multiple research institutions? If the answer is yes, then please respond to the questions within the context of the research institution where you spend most of your working hours. We will start by asking you a bit about yourself.