NIOZ Next

Introduction
NIOZ-Next was initiated in summer 2012 when the NIOZ directorate invited all the tenure trackers from NIOZ-Yerseke and NIOZ-Texel to participate in this new initiative, with the assignment to organise themselves and structure rules and ideas.

The first assignment of NIOZ-Next was to organise a NIOZ+ Science day, which was held on Thursday 28 June 2012. To this end about 230 colleagues gathered on Texel with the primary goal to get to know each other. NIOZ-Next is expected to organise such NIOZ+ activities on a yearly basis with the goal to exchange scientific ideas.

Mission
NIOZ-Next is a group of NIOZ scientists selected on their scientific merits to form a platform of enthusiastic and critical scholars who are not only interested in science-in-general but are also able to think outside of their own scientific discipline.
They form a group that is characterised by direct communication, strong interactions, and an informal atmosphere. Despite the fact that a single chairperson acts as their representative, their organisation is very non-hierarchical.

As the name suggests, NIOZ-Next is foreseen to be the next generation leaders of NIOZ. To this end, they can benefit from getting to know each other already during an early stage in order to strengthen ties across disciplines and departments. In addition to developing their scientific abilities, the members are offered specific courses to develop their organisational and management skills.

NIOZ-Next acts as an advisory body to the NIOZ directorate, next to the International Science Committee. In addition, NIOZ-Next serves as an intermediary between early-career scientists (e.g., PhD students, post-docs) and senior scientists.