CLCG Evaluation 2004

1. Center for Language and Cognition, Groningen Faculty of Arts 1998-2003 John Nerbonne CLCG Evaluation 2004

2. Institute's Goals in Review • Present institutional ecology • Understand past successes, failures • Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats • Formulate strategy as background to research program 2004-2008

3. Objectives of Evaluation • Scores on scale 1-5 on quality, quantity, relevance and viability. • for CLCG and for each research group in CLCG • Peer Review Committee’s reflections on linguistic research in Groningen, ways to improve • 10-12 pp. report

4. CLCG • Linguistics Research Institute, Faculty of Arts • ~ 55 staff members, 1/3 research appt. on ave. • ~ 9.4 postdocs, 100% research • ~ 25 grad. stud., 80% research • Seven research groups responsible for meetings, strategy in grants, reporting. • Advisory Board, chaired by Kees de Bot

5. Faculty of Arts • Guarantees 30% research time for ass’t profs, 40% for assoc. and full prof. • ~1,000 Euro/researcher/year travel, conf. costs • Provides 10 Ph.D. positions per year (90%) • Identifies vacancies based (almost) only on student numbers (exception: “Kleine Letteren”). • 60-70% teaching means 6-7 full semester courses per year. (Full course = 1/3 of student schedule)

6. Dutch Research: Institutes vs. “Schools” • Institutes (CLCG) -- faculty research org. • Oversee research time allotment, local funds • Hiring, promotion staff members • Schools are supra-faculty, even national • Provide graduate training courses • Facilitate contacts between faculties, universities • LOT (national Linguistics school) • BCN (Groningen Neuroscience)

7. Membership Requirements • CLCG • Ph.D. Linguistics, position w. research time • min. 1 scientific publication/year/0.3 research time • reviewed every three years • LOT (National Linguistics School) • Institute Membership • BCN (Groningen Neuroscience) • Institute Membership, 2 publications/year with neuroscientific relevance

8. CLCG Advisory Board • Group leaders plus all full professors • Two meetings per year • Wide-ranging agendas (graduate student selection, reaction to faculty research policy proposals) • Effective in identifying research preferences for positions (given an instructional need).

9. TABU Dag, Colloquia • TABU -Groningen linguistics on show, some outside speakers to attract participants • Approx. 30-35 half-hour talks • First free Friday in June • Colloquia • Weekly 30+ times/years • Wide range of speakers

10. Institute's Goals in Review • Present institutional ecology • Understand past successes, failures • Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats • Formulate strategy as background to research program 2004-2008

11. PP Phonetics/Phonology Dicky Gilbers SS Syntax/Semantics Jan Koster DH Descriptive/Historical Peter Houtzagers DC Discourse/Communication Gisela Redeker CL Computational Gertjan van Noord Ed Educational Kees de Glopper NL Neurolinguistics Roelien Bastiaanse CLCG Research Groups: Subdisciplines

12. Groups • Each group will present • Scientific impact, ongoing work & plans, views on what’s needed • Four research groups have regular meetings, two have sporadic meetings • Meetings helpful to graduate students (current literature, try-outs of presentations)

13. Staffing All figures in fte researchers/yr., where staff are parttime research. See A.4

14. Ph.D. Projects Initiated • -See p.8, tbl. 2 • -Internal tracks sum of (Matching + External) except for CL • Internal projects awarded based on candidate quality • NL attracts most high-quality applicants (EMCL) • Change under consideration: • Restrict awards to groups w. regular meetings OR • Awards based on program quality

15. Ph.D. Supervision • Supervisor, intended “promotor”, group meetings • Courses through BCN, LOT, ESSLLI, LSA, ELSNET • Jack Hoeksema (Dir. Studies) on integration w. research MA • First year report • 25 pp., def. research question, pilot study, replication • No projects stopped, but several conditional passes • Over 90% completion, but ave. 5.5 yr. + • 2 D&H projects not completed, most too long • Need improvement everywhere on timely completion

16. Ph.D. Placement See B.5 in group sections (added by CLCG)

17. Scholarly Production - See B.9, Tbl. 6 in group sections

18. Project Acquisition See p.8, Tbl.2. Grad. student projects are four years, “matching” counts ½. See p. 13 Table. Added by CLCG.

19. Institute's Goals in Review • Present institutional ecology • Understand past successes, failures • Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats • Formulate strategy as background to research program 2004-2008

20. Many linguists Guaranteed research Neurolinguistics, Comp.Linguistics, Syntax & Semantics, Educ. Linguistics 400K contract research (Ed.Ling.) Declining stud. interest Little influence on identifying vacancies. Demanding instruction saps staff energies Limited graduate student support. Some inactive groups Strengths & Weaknesses

21. Opportunities & Threats • Opportunity: • very popular communications study • the only linguistics area growing in popularity • Threats: • little expertise in phonetics/instrumental phonology • 11% drop in linguistic positions since 1997

22. Institute's Goals in Review • Present institutional ecology • Understand past successes, failures • Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats • Formulate strategy as background to research program 2004-2008

23. Institutional Strategy • Given reliance on external funds, stimulate CLCG members to seek outside funding. • Require regular research meetings of groups seeking graduate students • Strategic research foci: see group reports, but emphasize common projects.

24. Corrections to Report • p.8 “[…] research time was allotted in a way dependent for 80% on student numbers …” => “[…] staffing levels were determined in a way dependent for 80% on student numbers…” • p.12 table, only 2 not 3 of these Ph.D. projects were incomplete (both from Descriptive & Historical Linguistics)