KNAW Accreditation for ICS

It is our pleasure to announce that the application for accreditation of the ICS by the Royal Netherlands' Academy of Sciences (KNAW) has been honored. The letter acknowledging Accreditation was received from the ECOS on June 6, 2012.

This means that the ICS enters its fourth period of official accreditation by the KNAW (1993-1997, 1998-2002, 2003-2008). In 2008, due to changing policy with regard to interuniversity research schools, the boards of the three universities could not endorse the ICS' intention to apply for KNAW re-accreditation.

The current accreditation is valid for a period of six years, until July 1, 2018. The accreditation has been granted based on a thorough review by an independent committee of the ICS research and training program, its scientific performance and its organizational procedures. To conclude, the Accreditation Committee (ECOS) had interviews with a delegation of the ICS board and of PhD students and postdocs.

Quotes from the ECOS report:

“The impression emerging from the interviews is that the ICS, as an interuniversity research school, has clearly an added value in a discipline that would otherwise become fragmented. In the interview with the delegation of PhD students and postdocs, there was an open exchange of thoughts and ideas about the ICS training program. The picture arising was that of a very good atmosphere in the research school, and great satisfaction of the PhD students with their training program”.

“The ECOS has come has come to a positive assessment about the ICS and decides to accredit the research school for the coming six years. The quality of this interuniversity research school is good. The ECOS observes with pleasure that it was again possible for the University of Groningen to apply for accreditation of the ICS. The ECOS regrets that the University of Nijmegen could not join as participant in the ICS application. This would benefit the substantive supervision of PhD students and the network function”.

The ICS is thankful for the continued commitment and contribution of all its members, in achieving this important milestone.

http://www.ics-graduateschool.nl/