Director Research Policy and Support (including Director ERIM)

Are you keen on creating the conditions for top-quality academic research at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) that will enable us to continue strengthening our excellent research community? Do you have the drive for effective and efficient operations? Are you a caring and inspiring people manager, able to navigate within a matrix organisation? Then we would like to talk with you about becoming our next director Research Policy and Support, which includes director Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM). 

Your role

As the director Policy and Research Support, including director ERIM, your role has a dual focus on two closely intertwined sets of activities. At ERIM – Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) and RSM's interfaculty research support unit and graduate school – you are responsible to take the lead in organizing the research support for faculty, PhD candidates, and professional staff at RSM and at ESE. Combined, these form one of Europe’s leading research communities in the field of management and economics and comprise a total of more than 300 research-active faculty as well as more than 200 full- and part-time PhDs. 

Your role is to further strengthen and develop this community through designing, implementing, and operationalising policies that foster comprehensive research excellence – including indicators that contribute to your research unit’s international reputation but also to Open and Responsible Science, research-based impact and engagement, and Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA). 

The role has a dual focus on two closely intertwined sets of activities:  

As director Policy and Research Support at RSM, you are responsible for co-creating and developing the school’s strategy and policy on research-related matters to further steer and support excellent, impactful research at RSM. In this function, you work closely with and report to RSM’s vice dean of Research (who also serves as ERIM’s scientific director). Likewise, you collaborate with other stakeholders in the school and the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), for example, Academic Affairs or Research Policy Advisors at other faculties. You also liaise with actors and institutions outside of EUR to remain apprised of relevant developments in the national and international research policy domain.

As director ERIM, you form part of and work closely with the ERIM management team, which consists of ERIM’s scientific and associate directors as well as the directors of Doctorate Education. In this part of your role, you focus on leading the implementation of the contributing schools’ research policy through the ERIM research support and graduate school teams and ensure the strategic development of the infrastructure needed to foster quality, impactful research. To achieve this, you strategically manage ERIM’s team of research support professionals through the line management of the team leads of ERIM’s research support team and PhD office. You further liaise with the schools’ operational units to ensure the smooth implementation and embedding of research policies, support, and infrastructure. Additionally, you coordinate with other units that offer research-related services at the contributing schools and at EUR (e.g., pre-award funding teams, EUR Engagement and Research Services). 

Your main tasks

Altogether you will form a leading connection between the relevant academic and professional service teams at RSM and ESE to help build an ecosystem of research policy, support, and infrastructure that supports the continued thriving of RSM’s and ERIM’s research community. 

As director Research Policy and Support, including director ERIM, we expect you can carry out the following: 

• Co-create RSM’s research policy together with the RSM vice dean of research by making high-level contributions to the development and implementation of policies, standards, and transformation initiatives that are related to topics such as open and responsible science, data management, research integrity, and research-based engagement and impact. To do so, you will also liaise with research policy professionals at other faculties and relevant university-wide units.
• Provide strategic advice and support to ERIM’s scientific director and the other members of the ERIM management team, to implement strategic research objectives and to promote academic excellence, scientific integrity, and scholarly impact.
• Line-manage ERIM’s team leads of the professional service teams focused on research support and the PhD office, ensuring they operate in innovative ways with a strong stakeholder focus. This task also involves coordination with the non-ERIM staff that supports research at RSM and ESE, e.g., RSM's Grants Team.
• Develop and foster a collaborative, caring, and inspiring working environment, in which research support professionals feel safe and empowered to act as valued expert partners of other stakeholders in the school and university-wide.  
• Manage the financial resources available to ERIM, including the management of the annual and multi-annual budget cycle.
• Maintain strong collaborative links with researchers, academic units, and relevant professional service units, to ensure the effective delivery of research support.
• Develop and implement effective engagement strategies and activities to inform researchers about the services and resources available to them.
• Implement and sustain effective systems, including research information and application systems, to ensure the effective performance of research support tasks.
• Serve as RSM's Research Integrity Coordinator and on RSM's IDEA committee as a key liaison to the research function.
• Coordinate the periodic assessment and review of the research performance of RSM to ensure that external expectations are met. 

Your required qualifications

Given that this is a research-focused role at the interface of professional and academic staff, active research experience is a strong plus (but not a strict requirement) for this role. Likewise, a PhD degree is not a strict requirement, but very desirable. You have an advantage when you can speak and read Dutch at an intermediate level or can demonstrate a strong commitment to develop your Dutch language skills after your appointment to the role.

You are eligible for this role when you can demonstrate the following:

• Strong knowledge of the issues associated with research policy and research support
• Experience in creating, implementing, and monitoring strategies and services to support researchers in achieving international standing and impact, including experience in writing policy
• Experience with managing at a strategic and operational level
• Ability to help build a well-functioning, diverse, inclusive, and socially safe team
• Proven capacity to develop and implement innovative and stakeholder-centric procedures and to ensure stakeholder-focused service delivery
• Ability to build consensus and advocate for plans and strategies effectively in a complex matrix organisation
• Commitment to high performance and continuous improvement
• Strong communication skills in both written and spoken English (level C1)
• Minimum of five years’ experience in the field, preferably in a higher education setting and/or in the public domain.

Your required competences 

We encourage you to apply for this role when you have the following:

• An excellent understanding of the research domain
• Can strategically think about and shape research support and policy through and with a strong team
• Motivation to keep abreast of developments and trends regarding research policies and support in the faculties, the university, as well as the national and international research ecosystems
• Ability to effectively manage for results, implement policies, and manage change by actively directing and steering research support through the dedicated team leads
• Are forward-thinking, proactive, and take initiative to continuously improve policy and processes
• Strong social skills, can maintain excellent relationships with multiple stakeholders, and can effectively operate and implement policy in a complex matrix organisation and interfaculty context
• Strong analytical skills
• Effective communicator who can convey complex decisions and change processes in interaction with multiple stakeholders
• Good people manager, who leads by example, and a good communicator and listener, and who stimulates development and growth in the team and nurtures a high-performing team environment. 

We offer you a full-time contract, with the possibility to discuss a 0.8 fte appointment. This contract is for an initial period of 12 months and can be converted into an employment contract for an indefinite period if suitability is proven, and if continued in the same position, if (financial and/or organisational) circumstances remain the same. We offer you working conditions that are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU).

The intended start date of this position is 1 September 2026. We operate a hybrid working model, which gives you the freedom to work both virtually and on our vibrant campus. You join an international and interdisciplinary team of committed and enthusiastic research support professionals. 

Your salary is dependent on your experience and knowledge and ranges from a minimum of € 6,835 to a maximum of € 8,673 gross per month (scale 14) based on fulltime (38 hours) employment and in accordance with the CAO-NU. 

Read below to discover everything else we can offer you:

- Everything you need for a good work-life balance: the option to work from home in consultation with your manager, 41 days of paid leave with a 40 hour contract, 8% holiday pay and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus, and a significant discount on a subscription for our on-campus sports centre!

- Sustainable, inclusive and diverse work environment with an open culture, where you can be yourself and we pay attention to each other and to the world around us. Make the most of our bicycle budget, or join networks such as Young@EUR, FAME or QuEUR.

- Time and space for your development in the broadest sense: development days and a personal career budget and free access to our university library.

- Good pension with ABP that EUR contributes 2/3rds towards, discounts on various collective insurances with Zilveren Kruis Achmea, Loyalis, and Allianz, and compensation for travel, working from home and home internet use.

- Are you currently combining your job with parenthood, or do you want to do so in the future? EUR offers partially paid parental leave and fully paid additional birth leave for partners, and our campus features a daycare (daycare not paid for by EUR).

- Moving to the Netherlands for your job with EUR? Then you may be eligible for the Expat-ruling if you meet the requirements of the Belastingdienst (Dutch tax agency), and with our Dual Career Programme we can also help your partner find the right job for them.

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) is one of Europe’s top-ranked business schools. RSM provides ground-breaking research and education furthering excellence in all aspects of management and is based in the international port city of Rotterdam – a vital nexus of business, logistics and trade. RSM’s primary focus is on developing business leaders with international careers who can become a force for positive change by carrying their innovative mindset into a sustainable future. Our first-class range of bachelor, master, MBA, PhD and executive programmes encourage them to become critical, creative, caring and collaborative thinkers and doers. www.rsm.nl

RSM is an equal opportunity employer and explicitly encourages applications from candidates of all genders, ethnicities, and nationalities.

Have we caught your interest for this vacancy? Then, we encourage you to apply between June 1 and June 21, 2026 by using the link below.

Please be sure to include your latest CV and a motivation letter, as well as the names of two references that can be contacted should your application move to the interview stage. 

The intended start date for the position is 1 September 2026.

When you have questions about this vacancy or would like further information about the position, please contact Inga Hoever by email at ihoever@rsm.nl.