Inspiring people @WUR: Ronald Pierik

After twenty years in Utrecht, this is a big move.

“Geographically, of course, it’s barely a change. But in terms of working environment, it’s quite a big transition. I originally went to Utrecht as a postdoctoral researcher with the idea of doing that for a couple of years and then looking for something else. A few years turned into twenty.”

In a post on LinkedIn, you said your switch would help ‘to breathe new life into my research’.

“The research was going very well, the group was working really well, and we were producing good papers. But I think it’s necessary in academia to keep renewing yourself. Sometimes you have to look for a slightly bigger challenge to keep you on your toes and to stay sufficiently innovative. Every now and then, you need to give things a shake-up. I knew I very much wanted to continue in academia and did not necessarily see myself moving into management as my next challenge. So, a transfer to another university is very attractive.”

In that same post, you also wrote: ‘I look forward to continue advocating for diversity and inclusion within the university’. That’s because, at Utrecht, you chaired the faculty’s diversity committee.

“I really wanted to do that. Universities have quite a big gender bias in their leadership roles. It’s important that it does not just fall on the shoulders of people who are already underrepresented to do something about this. It’s a subject that I find important.

And WUR still has some way to go here. At Utrecht, the faculty’s diversity committee spoke directly to the faculty’s management. The dean regularly joined the diversity committee. We could make policy suggestions directly, and those suggestions were often taken on board too. At university level, Utrecht established a dean of diversity, who reports directly to the Executive Board. I miss that direct influence on policy here. I feel that there is no well formalised structure. And because that structure is missing, you also have no clout when it comes to getting policies going that relate to diversity and inclusion.”

You’ve only been here since September, but you’ve noticed this really quickly.

“Wageningen is obviously not an unknown organisation for a plant biologist. I came here regularly before, so I had some insight into the organisation. I’m now seeing that my thoughts do in fact match the reality. For example, I am currently recruiting a new staff member. There are very few rules for this process; I have a fair amount of freedom. In principle, I could do this mostly by myself and perhaps not be overruled. An appointment advisory committee isn’t set up until the last minute. Now, that committee does pay close attention to many aspects of diversity and inclusion. But if you’re not given any diverse material to work with as a committee, then there won’t be any diversity.”

“And take the portraits hanging in Omnia, a hot topic right now. A conscious decision was made to hang only portraits of men - former rectors and professors - both opposite the ‘Faculty Club’ and in the PhD graduation hall. Omnia is the building for meetings and dialogue, where the university opens its doors to society, where family and friends of PhD candidates enter a university sometimes for the first time. It seems that WUR is consciously choosing to project this image of exclusively men. Fortunately, this is about to be changed. But this example shows that there is still quite a gap between vision and practice at WUR.”

Is it mainly a matter of formalising policy, writing things down, so that you have something to rely on? Or is it also a matter of mindset and awareness?

“It’s both. You would need to have been living under a rock not to be aware of the discussion around diversity and inclusion. But if there are no policy instruments to guide things, then you’re at the mercy of individuals. They’re all going to do things in their own way, to the best of their knowledge. Their motives are great; I’ve no doubts about that. But the bottom line is that we still have a huge bias, even just when it comes to gender diversity. So, it will evidently take more to genuinely change things. I think there really needs to be a policy. That’s more difficult at Wageningen than elsewhere because there is a lot of decentralised autonomy that rests with professors holding a chair. And these people can make decisions on their own to a great extent and are not used to taking into account a lot of substantive preconditions.”

Is it also your personal ambition to make your mark on this topic as well as in the academic arena?

“I am now leading an existing research group. Here too, I obviously want to pursue diversity, for example with the positions I can now fill. At university level, you can’t do very much as a chair. But just imagine if a diversity committee were set up, one that also involved academics and had an actual policy mandate, then real strides could be made. I’m quite fine with not being on such a committee for the time being, mind you. They take up a lot of time. But the issue is so important that something really needs to be done.”

As chair of the faculty’s diversity committee at Utrecht, you said: ‘Diversity creates an environment in which talent can flourish’.

“A simple example: women and men are naturally equally qualified for a job as a senior academic. Among our body of professors, just over 20 per cent are women and so almost 80 per cent are men, which means that you’ve hired a lot of men, relatively speaking, at the expense of better-qualified women. The ratio among students and PhD candidates is about 50-50. So, you’re losing a lot of potential and you are filling the gap with male potential. I also think that an environment that is more varied and more diverse also has more creativity. And academia benefits from creativity and variety, from different ideas, from people with different backgrounds, from diversity.”

WUR’s vision is that it doesn’t matter who you love, what language you speak, where you were born or what you believe in. It’s a great vision, but it seems that the practical realisation of this vision is not quite there yet, right?

“Across the organisation as a whole, there is plenty of diversity. There are people from all sorts of different backgrounds. But when it comes to people in senior academic roles, you have to conclude that it is still nowhere near 50-50. So, clearly, we’re not there yet.”

“When I look around me, I think the reality is not quite at the same level as the ambition yet. The influx of students and postdoctoral researchers is very diverse. But as you go higher up, there’s still work to do, and this is a problem that’s not actually specific to WUR. It takes effort, and you really have to go for it. If you feel that you have the ideal candidate for a position, you have to dare to let go of that from time to time. That’s incredibly difficult. Sometimes you get really excited about someone. Should you then not select your favourite candidate because diversity is more important for your team or for the university as a whole at that moment? Should you choose the greater good instead of choosing the expertise you have a top candidate for? That’s a difficult choice. But if you use that kind of opportunist argument every time, you won’t get anywhere.”

Assuming equal qualifications, would you choose to give a particular position to a woman?

“Oh, absolutely. There is no doubt about that. I checked whether I could advertise this vacancy to women only. I was told that this is not allowed for formal reasons. But if you think we have too few women in these kinds of positions, recruit women. I would be fine with that. It’s complicated and sometimes it’s not fair on qualified men, but in fact, exactly the opposite policy is happening right now, and has been happening for many centuries. If you wait for good intentions, the process is too slow.”

You are now in a great position. You are a white man of 49. How do you score on the privilege checklist?

“I’m missing one tick because I wasn’t born to highly educated parents. The rest is simple. I’m a heterosexual white male, born in the Netherlands, like my parents. I completed pre-university education and have a university degree. That’s five or six ticks already. It’s important for men like me to realise that this has worked in our favour. We would all like to think we’ve reached our position because we are good at something. But there is no denying that it is also because we are something we don’t deserve any credit for.”

To what extent does the topic of diversity and inclusion give you inspiration and motivation?

“I got into this work because I find science interesting. As you take on more leadership tasks and therefore work more with people, then equality, diversity, but above all inclusiveness, become more important. But the impact you can make on an organisation is relatively modest. The impact you can make on the people you educate and mentor – students, PhD candidates – is pretty big though. That’s where I really want to show that there are opportunities for everyone.”