Arwin van der Zwan
30 June 2014
CLARIN is one of the two big humanities pan-European research infrastructures on the ESFRI roadmap with global ambitions, expected to expand rapidly in the near future. It currently has about 25 centres in 10 countries and the number is growing.
At the same time CLARIN is participating actively in several emerging global data infrastructure initiatives (e.g. RDA, EUDAT). In addition it is actively pursuing its collaboration with other international humanities research infrastructures such as DARIAH.
As the current CLARIN ERIC Executive Director is retiring, CLARIN is looking for an inspiring person to continue this successful enterprise and lead it to the next level.
The main challenges the new executive director needs to lead on in the next years are: the expansion and the sustainability of CLARIN, to balance the central and distributed activities, increase outreach to new user communities, new collaboration partners and new continents, and to promote collaboration with commercial partners.
The ideal candidate has:
- A higher university degree or equivalent qualifications and an international interdisciplinary network
- Relevant experience in the European Research Area, international arena, as well as in European level funding mechanisms and understanding of the ESFRI process
- An understanding of current and emerging agendas and challenges in data management and curation in the humanities domain
- Excellent communicative skills
- A proven fundraising record
- A record of relevant academic excellence
- The ability to understand organisational and technical issues involved in building, maintaining, and federating digital repositories, catalogues, authentication services, and similar infrastructure components based on modern information technologies
(S)he will be responsible for the daily operation of CLARIN ERIC, head the main office in Utrecht and act as the representative of CLARIN in the international community. The Executive Director cooperates closely with the and is supported by a small staff.
Responsibilities of the Executive Director will include:
- Leading the Board of Directors of the CLARIN ERIC
- Building on prior work, drafting strategy, work programme, budget and staff plan for CLARIN
- Planning the technical development together with the Technical Director, overseeing the implementation and operation of the distributed infrastructure and coordinating centre cooperation
- Ensuring the long-term sustainability of CLARIN and guiding its European and global expansion
- Building strong pan-European and international relationships with a broad range of stakeholders within and outside the consortium. This includes CLARIN members, the relevant ministries and funding bodies, external language resource providers, the EU, and international bodies, including research infrastructures on the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) Roadmaps as well as other research infrastructures
- Leading the international fundraising efforts for CLARIN
- Monitoring and measuring CLARIN’s activities and reporting to General Assembly
- Specifically, monitoring the adherence of the national consortia to the operational rules and standards for CLARIN-related operations, and developing recommendations for counter-measures for any irregularities
- Ensuring that CLARIN’s services comply with appropriate ethical, legal and societal norms and principles
- Planning, organizing, and managing the main office in Utrecht, which includes recruitment
- Facilitating and supporting the operation of CLARIN’s governance bodies
Additional Benefits:
- Embedding within the Department of Languages, Culture and Communication, part of the Faculty of Humanities of Utrecht University.
- Depending on the candidate’s qualifications, employment will be at the level of associate or full professor for a period of 5 years, possibly longer depending on available funding.
- Depending on qualifications and experience, the monthly gross salary of an Associate Professor will be minimally € 4.517 and maximally € 6.039. For a full professor, the monthly salary will be minimally € 5.573 and maximally € 8.795, both according to the Collective Employment Agreement of the Dutch Universities, based on a full time basis. The salary is supplemented with an annual holiday pay of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 8,3% per year. We offer flexible working conditions to support a good work – life balance of our employees. Other secondary conditions include e.g. a pension scheme and partially paid parental leave.
- Applicants from abroad moving to the Netherlands may be eligible for a special expense allowance scheme: the 30% facility. The Tax and Customs Administration decides whether employees meet the necessary conditions.
Practical Information
The Executive Director will be based at the main office in Utrecht (NL) and is expected to be travelling frequently throughout Europe.
The period of employment for this position will be five years. Expected start date in office for the Executive Director: February 2015.
Considering CLARIN’s high level of ambitions and the challenges ahead, the job of Executive Director is a full time position (or at least 80% if circumstances demand it).
About the seat of CLARIN ERIC
Utrecht University is one of the largest and most prominent universities in Europe and has great ambitions for the quality of its research and teaching.
The Faculty of Humanities is home to the disciplines of history, art, philosophy, music, literature, language, religious studies, and media. Our education and research in these fields are centred around Western culture, from classical antiquity to the present day, examined from a global perspective.
The Utrecht Institute of Linguistics is a high level internationally oriented research institute which unites roughly 70 permanent researchers and 50 temporary researchers (PhD students and post-docs), affiliated with the Department of Languages, Culture and Communication. Junior and senior researchers work together in small, thematically structured groups investigating aspects of phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, historical linguistics, computational linguistics, discourse studies, first & second language acquisition, pyscho-/neurolinguistics, bilingualism, discourse studies, reading & comprehension, language education. This multifaceted research institute is proud to host both CLARIN-NL and CLARIN ERIC.
Application Process
To submit an application, please send an application letter that describes your qualifications, experience, and specific outlook for the post. Please send your letter, a CV including a list of recent relevant publications and other relevant materials in a single PDF-file to directorvacancy@clarin.eu.
The closing date for applications is January 10 2015.
Shortlisted candidates should be prepared to participate in online interviews in the first half of September. Second interviews are planned to take place in the Netherlands on September 29 and/or 30 2014.
For further information, please contact Bente Maegaard (Vice-executive Director)
E-mail: bmaegaard@hum.ku.dk; Phone: +45 35 32 90 74
The pdf below can be used for further distribution of the vacancy advertisement:
