“Bring your own values!” - lunch: cooperation with the Ministry of Defence

The Descartes Centre and the Strategic Theme Institutions for Open Societies have started a series of informal lunch meetings that are devoted to an open discussion of the values that drive us as academics. 

During our next meeting in this series we want to discuss a topic that is, at this moment, of great importance for the universities in the Netherlands: the cooperation of the universities – including the UU – with the Ministry of Defence. 

It is obvious that this kind of cooperation invites many questions concerning value decisions. Which forms of cooperation do staff members of the UU find desirable/acceptable/problematic? How can make the relevant constraints explicit? How has the UU handled this so far? What kind of infrastructure do we need to handle this cooperation?

This brief and informal lunch meeting does not require any preparation on the side of the participants. We shall start with a short discussion statement; the goal of this meeting is to get a picture of the ideas, questions, wishes, positive or critical attitudes that live among UU staff members. The invitation is completely open; this topic is relevant for colleagues from all disciplines, faculties, layers and organizational levels within the UU – so if you feel that have ideas or experiences concerning this topic, or are simply curious, feel most cordially invited!