Justus Uitermark is responsible for creating and maintaining an inspiring research environment. Feel free to reach out directly with any questions or concerns, in particular about:

• The curriculum of the AISSR
• Questions or concerns related to academic integrity
• AISSR rules and policies
• Your ideas, questions, and draft proposals for funding applications

The academic director also chairs the Programme Council and other AISSR meetings, and participates in faculty meetings on behalf of the AISSR.

The managing director is responsible for the annual budgets, deputizing for the academic director and external relations. The managing director can be contacted for all your questions about:

• AISSR wide finances
• AISSR rules, policies and administrative processes
• AISSR bureau
• Agenda items for Programme Council

Furthermore, the managing director is responsible for planning and executing policy and administrative processes, as determined by the Programme Council.

The AISSR secretariat can assist with:

• Reception desk for all general questions for and about the AISSR (bureau), also if you are unsure about whom to contact.
• Practical support for academic meetings, conferences, and workshops: booking meeting rooms, making hotel reservations, organising catering.
• Housing, accommodation, residence permits and insurance for foreign PhD candidates.
• PhD training programme: practical information and registration.
• Agenda management for AISSR management
• Input for the AISSR newsletter

The AISSR secretariat is available from Monday to Friday.

As the AISSR office manager, Han Bakker manages the AISSR secretariat. Han can be contacted for matters such as:

• Monitoring progress of the PhD trajectories
• Questions regarding the PhD training programme

Our programme managers support the 14 programme groups within the departments of Anthropology, Geography, Planning and International Development Studies (GPIO), Political Science and Sociology.

They are available for:

• Providing administrative and financial guidance and support in grant acquisition; for both internal and external grants, e.g. NWO, EU, Impulse grants
• Administrative and financial project management for awarded grants
• Financial management for programme group budgets
• Financial and administrative support during PhD trajectories

Our programme managers also act as a link with departmental secretaries, who carry out institute-wide duties.

Our PhD coordinator Simon can assist with:

• Questions about the admission procedure and start of your PhD trajectory
• All general issues regarding the AISSR PhD programme
• Progress monitoring
• Questions regarding the PhD training programme (including SICs)
• Joint Doctorate procedures.

Simon is also the contact person for the PhD Sounding Board as well as the Educational Committee.

You can contact the AISSR communications team for:

• Advice and support on communication and outreach, for example how to communicate your research, project or activities and reach relevant audiences within and outside the UvA.
• Promoting and disseminating research results, publications, events and other AISSR-related news, for example through the AISSR newsletter, website and social media channels.
• Questions and support regarding the AISSR website, including programme group, research centre, project and event pages.
• Advice and support regarding your UvA profile page and the online visibility of your research.
• Communication and coordination around (AISSR-wide) events and activities.
• Liaising with the FMG Communications team and the UvA Communication and Press Office when broader faculty- or university-level communication or media support is relevant.

Our research policy officer can assist with questions about:

• registration of publication output in PURE
• annual reports and external evaluations

Nicole can also advise on Open Access publishing

All UvA research output is registered in Pure, the University of Amsterdam’s research information system. Registering your research output in Pure is important for several reasons:

• UvA profile page: Pure is linked to your UvA profile page. Research output registered in Pure will automatically appear on your profile.

• AISSR reporting: The information in Pure is used for internal reporting and helps us maintain an overview of the research output of AISSR researchers.

• Visibility: Registering your research output in Pure increases the visibility and findability of your research and publications, including through search engines.

You can register your publications, activities, memberships and press/media appearances in Pure yourself. Finn is also happy to assist you with registering or updating your research output in Pure.

Marleen advises researchers on existing standards and guidelines regarding ethics & research integrity, and can be contacted for:

• The ethics review procedure of the AISSR Ethics Advisory Board;
• The AISSR Integrity protocol;
• AISSR policy on ethics and integrity;
• Any other questions, issues and suggestions regarding research integrity & ethics; both substantial and procedural.

For questions about PhD plagiarism checks, please contact Sybille Krumpl or Marleen Rademaker.

Our data stewards can be contacted regarding:

• Questions about the Research Management Services (RMS).
• Support writing a Data Management Plan (DMP).
• Questions about storing/archiving/publishing data.
• Questions about data security and GDPR.
• AISSR policy on research data management.

Our data stewards can also assist in creating data processing and data sharing agreements.

Emil Holland is the research grant advisor. He has extensive experience in supporting EU and NWO grants across all social science disciplines.

You are welcome to contact Emil at any stage of the grant process. The earlier you get in touch, the better Emil can support you. He is also available for discussions about which calls may be suitable for your profile and situation.

Robert and Jip assist the directors of our seven AISSR affiliated centres:

1. Amsterdam Centre for Conflict Studies (ACCS)
2. Amsterdam Centre for Inequality Studies (AMCIS)
3. Amsterdam Research Centre for Gender and Sexuality (ARC-GS)
4. Centre for Social Science and Global Health (SSGH)
5. Centre for Sustainable Development Studies (CSDS)
6. Centre for Urban Studies (CUS)
7. Amsterdam Research Centre for Migration (ARC-M)

For these centres, they keep an overview of the finances as a budget holder, organise and coordinate various academic activities, events and meetings and assist with communication and reporting. 

Each programme group selects a PhD representative. They represent the PhD candidates in their programme group on the PhD Sounding Board, which meets with AISSR and GSSS management. The representatives advise AISSR and GSSS management on PhD-related matters and gather input from their fellow PhD candidates.

They also facilitate meetings at programme group level and organise activities that contribute to the intellectual community, such as paper discussions, seminars and lectures. They welcome and introduce new PhD candidates and serve as a primary point of contact for PhD-related questions.

There are four AISSR PhD mentors:

1. Marieke Brand (Anthro)
2. Virginie Mamadouh (GPIO)
3. Jessica Soedirgo & Carissa Tudor (POL)
4. Ladan Rahbari (SOC)

The PhD mentors integrate the role of AISSR confidential counsellors and their new role as PhD mentor. AISSR PhD students may contact the PhD mentor of their department as well as any of the other PhD mentors.

PhD mentors:

• invite new PhD students to the department, together with the other relevant actors
• act as the first point of contact for PhD students with questions their supervisor or co-supervisor cannot answer
• offer emotional support to PhD students (in relation to work-related stress)
• can be consulted for advice regarding various issues such as:
  • brainstorming about your options in a given situation
  • interactions with your supervisor or supervision team
  • diversity and inclusivity  
  • working with a chronic disease or disability
  • problems combining tasks and roles (such as care tasks)
  • stress and other mental health problems
  • social insecurity
  • questions relating to UvA services (such as medical services and career support)
  • corona related questions regarding for example your planning
• can refer candidates to other UvA specialists or institutions/agencies when necessary
• can initiate a constructive discussion between the PhD student and their (co)-supervisor(s) in the case of a (impending) conflict with the (co-)supervisor(s)
• can be requested (by a PhD student and/or programme group leader) to advise/ mediate in case of tensions/conflicts regarding HR related issues and participate in an Annual Human Research Meeting when necessary
• identify general issues that affect PhD students and relay these to the programme group leader(s)/department chair

Confidentiality

PhD mentors safeguard the confidentiality of the PhD students. The PhD in question shall be consulted prior to informing the programme group leader or head of department about the issue. PhD mentors work according to the FMG ‘Working method for social insecurity FMG 2020’.