RIHS wishes you a sparkling 2019 reflections by director Bart Kiemeney

9 January 2019

Are you making the same mistake as I do these first weeks of the year? By still filling out 2018 instead of 2019 in all kinds of forms? Yes, it is 2019, not 2018 anymore.

Time flies. But we have not forgotten 2018! It was a wonderful year for the Radboud Institute for Health Sciences. Of course with the SEP evaluation in December. The preliminary report by the chair André Knottnerus was very positive and we are awaiting the definitive judgment with high hopes. The Frontiers congress in November was a great success. An interesting day on big data and an even thundering day on network care. And all these highlights throughout the year. Impossible to name them all. And although it is dangerous to mention only a few, I cannot control myself. The VICI for Maroeska Rovers. Dozens of large research grants from the EU, NWO/ZonMW, KWF and other financers. Hundreds of scientific papers, some in high impact factor journals but many more with high impact! 94 PhD theses were successfully defended. 133 new Training and Supervision Plans were submitted. The PhD council organized a great retreat again in Den Bosch. And as a Christmas gift, in the last week of December, we received no less than 4 grants from KWF.
   
2019 may be a year of change for the Institute. The SEP report may force us to rethink some of our work. The decision of the Executive Board about the governing structure, expected in the coming weeks, will probably have an impact on our Institute’s functioning. But regardless all of this, the high quality and high impact work of all of you will continue. Let’s keep on being successful in Science for Care while having Care for Science. And even more important, let’s do it with joy, with each other, and with a good work and private life balance.

Have a great 2019.