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Key points from the SURF Members' Council on 11 October

At the Members' Council on 11 October, the discussions included the allocation of Members' Council seats, the finalisation of the tariffs project, the progress report of the annual plan, the WTR advice on architecture and the mid-term review of the strategy. Also in this Members' Council, two mbo institutions became official members of SURF and thus, from now on, the entire mbo is affiliated to SURF.

The following issues were discussed with the Members' Council:

Allocation of seats Members' Council

In the self-assessment of the Members' Council last April, the mbo department asked for a reconsideration of the number of seats available to the mbo. Given the growth in the number of members within SURF (all mbo schools are now members) and the increasing IT maturity, resulting in the mbo now fully participating in SURF, the department wants more say and therefore more seats in the Members' Council. The Members' Council agreed to the proposal to expand from a maximum of three to a maximum of five seats for the mbo department. Expanding the number of seats increases the size of the Members' Council (another department does not have to give up seats for this). This change requires an amendment to the articles of association, which will be available for inspection by all members for 30 days from the end of October.

Finalising project rates

Following positive advice from the Members' Council rates committee, SURF Portfolio Advisory Committee (SPA) and CSC chairs, the Members' Council agreed to the following three proposals:

  • The vast majority of network services are part of the basic package. Because previously larger network connections (over 10MB and light paths) were not standard, they were purchased as an additional service. Meanwhile, such connections are more standard and the proposal is to make them part of the basic package. This will make the services available to all members. Only very large network connections will then be additional. Financially, nothing will change. The rates that were charged as additional will henceforth become part of the basic fee, with members taking this service. It was suggested that this should be implemented from 2025, as the tariff letter for 2024 has already been published.
  • The intention to make the core package equal to the basic package was also considered. This seemed like a good step to make things easier. Recently, the SPA proposed to include some new services in the basic package, for which inclusion in the core package (which regulates forced shopping) is too far-reaching. It was therefore proposed not to pursue this proposal.
  • Finally, the committee talked about merging the basic infrastructure and procurement packages (the basic packages of former SURFnet and SURFmarket). With the merger, it makes sense to merge the packages into one, with no change in content.

With the Members' Council's approval on these three points, the project rates are complete.

Membership applications

SURF recently received two new applications from mbo institutions, namely Scalda and Mediacollege Amsterdam. During the Members' Council, the applications were approved. This means that all MBO institutions are now members of SURF. They are warmly welcomed.

Progress report annual plan SURF 2023

The Executive Board informed the Members' Council about the state of affairs regarding the Annual Plan 2023 and the progress made with a progress report including KPIs. Some key points are:

  • SURF is well on its way to achieving its ambition and strategy. In particular, the roles of association and service provider are being fulfilled well and expectations are being met. For the innovation workshop role, the context is important, namely that many activities take place or are linked to other large programmes such as Npuls and Open Science NL, which means it cannot always set its own pace.
  • After the first harmonisation exercise from the merger, setting up processes and systems internally in a sustainable way proves to be recalcitrant and continues to require a lot of time and attention.
  • SURF is well appreciated by its members, given the results of the member satisfaction survey, and its employees, given the results of the employee survey. Contributing to the quality of education and research, using digitisation, is a high priority for everyone. Both among staff and members.

Innovation at SURF

Since 2022, we have been using innovation zones and roadmaps within the SURF strategy. Ron Augustus, CINO SURF, explained the state of affairs. The Members' Council agreed to the proposal to reduce the four innovation zones in research to two innovation zones, redistributing the topics from the disappearing innovation zones to the remaining innovation zones.

WTR advice architecture

The Scientific Technical Council (WTR) may give solicited and unsolicited advice to the Members' Council. In this Members' Council, the unsolicited advice on architecture was discussed. In summary, the WTR advises SURF and the Members' Council to remove the informality of the already developed architecture models HOSA/HORA (for higher education) and MOSA/MORA (for intermediate vocational education). These models are valued by IT professionals (familiar with education and research) and other stakeholders, but commercial and public service providers are not required to use them. The WTR therefore advises the Members' Council and SURF to give the architecture frameworks more explicit formal status and to examine whether agreements can be realised at administrative level regarding the obligation for service providers and sector partners to adhere to the sector architecture. For PCIs, this is Nictiz and this agreement already applies.

The Members' Council agreed with the WTR's advice, but recommended breaking down follow-up steps into smaller building blocks and indicating how and where decision-making should take place (after all, agreements are made at sector level in the sector association and not in the Members' Council). Where choices affect education and research processes, more conversation is needed anyway. For a subject such as identity, the Members' Council sees room and urgency to start making agreements. SURF's board members have been asked to develop a plan on how to give more hands and feet to this subject.

Mid-term review Strategy 2022-2027

When SURF Strategy 2022-2027 was adopted, it was agreed that it would be reviewed at mid-term. This so-called mid-term review is currently being prepared for the first half of 2024. The Members' Council approved the Board's process proposal to conduct the mid-term review.

Changes in the Members' Council

  • Jan van der Boon retired from NWO-i at the beginning of August. Jan de Boer, NWO Board member, now represents NWO in the Members' Council.
  • Paulina Snijders transferred to the UMCG on 1 September. From 15 November, the vacancy at Tilburg University will be filled by Wilma de Koning-Martens.
  • Wilma de Koning-Martens will retire from KNAW on 15 November 2023. No successor to KNAW on the Members' Council is yet known.
  • Frank van der Duijn Schouten retired from the Open University on 1 September. Nicole Ummelen is his successor.
  • Nicole Ummelen took leave from Eindhoven University of Technology on 1 September. No successor in the Members' Council is yet known.
  • Robert Zoutendijk has joined the board members of the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences. No successor in the Members' Council is known yet.
  • Frits Gronsveld retired from STC Group. The vacant MBO seat was filled by Pauline Satter, board member at Christelijke Onderwijs Groep Vallei & Gelderland-Midden (COG).
  • Arlène Denissen stepped down from Albeda on 1 October. The vacancy in the MBO department has not yet been filled.
  • Chris Polman took leave at the VUmc. Wiro Niessen, board member of the UMCG, took over the NFU seat.

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