Making time for writing a research proposal or developing new education material? Signing up for a leadership course or working as a guest editor at that highly acclaimed magazine? In a new blog series, the Radboud Young Academy showcases the daily dilemmas young researchers encounter.

What priorities do you set in a field where the bar is incredibly high and every choice can have consequences for your career? The national Recognition & Rewards programme should serve as a guide for a healthier work-life balance.

Instead of forcing everyone to excel in all domains of academic life – research, teaching, societal impact, and academic leadership – academics should be given the opportunity to make more explicit choices. Choices that better align with their individual talents and desires.

Linguist Mark Dingemanse finds this a noble aim, but for now it mainly leads to even more pressure, he states in the first blog. ‘We rarely hear about one of the most palpable side effects for the younger cohorts of academics: we are now expected to score well on all fronts.’