KVI-CART reorganisation finally a done deal
KVI-CART reorganisation finally a done deal
Door Giulia Fabrizi
By Giulia Fabrizi
‘There’s still a lot of confusion about resources and all that’, says Nasser Kalantar-Nayestanaki. The professor of nuclear physics is leaving the research centre for FSE. ‘It’s not necessarily bad or good, just confusing. We’ll be discussing and working out the details over the next few months.’
The reorganisation took a lot of work. The board of directors kept pointing out that the research centre kept losing money, but staff at KVI-CART insisted their place of employment was doing fine. The board promised to go back on earlier agreements to allow the KVI-CART another chance to prove itself. Because of this, the university council refused to approve of the plans.
Only when the board of directors assured that no one would be forced to leave their position and that the UMCG would take over particle accelerator AGOR could the plan continue. FSE promised to employ the remaining staff.
Now, eighteen months later, peace and quiet have returned.
Confusion
‘The confusion that comes with a reorganisation is really difficult for the people involved’, says Kalantar-Nayestanaki. ‘Right now, not everyone at FSE is able to continue their research. As far as I’m concerned, the reorganisation isn’t finished until everyone has the resources, time, and money to do so.’
In spite of these ‘minor’ details, he’s not unhappy. ‘We said this needs to be solved quickly, because we want to continue our research. It’s true that the talks about that are still ongoing. But as long as people are willing to take care of everything, it will be all right.’
Different organisations
The reason the reorganisation took so long and inconvenienced the staff so much is partially due to the switch to the UMCG. ‘The UMCG is a different organisation than the RUG’, says professor Sytze Brandenburg, who was closely involved in the reorganisation. ‘That means we ran into things that worked differently to what we were used to.’
He praises the UMCG colleagues who took him and his people under their wings. ‘They’re working really hard to help us understand how everything works and to solve all our little teething issues.’
Brandenburg says the research projects that have been transferred to the UMCG will not be delayed. ‘Almost all the projects had been set up in collaboration with the UMCG, so they’re simply being continued. Most of the issues are of a practical nature, like people struggling with IT.’
Synergy
There are still a few kinks to be worked out at the UMCG, but above all, people are positive about the change. ‘There is clearly a lot of synergy, which benefits both research and research financing.’
Nevertheless, he has to admit that he ‘may have been a bit naive at the start of this change. Everything we had to take care of, everything we had to arrange and shut down. It was a lot more complicated than I thought.’
He acknowledges that the drawn-out nature of the change caused staff to feel nervous. ‘I think the UG and UMCG boards should have a good talk about that. Among themselves and with each other, to figure out if there’s a way to speed up processes like these. There’s a lot more I could say about that, but for now we just want to move on.’