Quality education is crucial for our society. The work of educational professionals is indispensable to achieve this goal. My research will focus on the context in which these educational professionals work en the factors that are important for their support. It is remarkable that the research about the support of educational professionals is mainly focused within K-12 education and there seems to be a gap for higher education. To close this gap, the project will pursue research regarding innovation in higher education and the importance of human resource quality in this regard. This project will be based on the 'Underpinning Excellence in Higher Education Model' (Kok & McDonald, 2017). The research will focus on strategic human resource management (SHRM) in higher education. SHRM involves personnel policy that invests in the individual needs of lectureres and in the integration of personnel practices in the strategic planning of the organisation (Boselie, 2014). The value of SHRM is proven in for profit organisations, however, research in social profit is scarce (Knies, Boselie, Goud-Williams & Vandenabeelde (2019). Moreover, in higher education research that focues on personel practices for lecturers is missing (Loeb, Paglayan & Taylor, 2012). This project want to contribute by focusing on SHRM at the departmental level in higher education and the outcomes of SHRM such as wellbeing of lecturers and educational quality within departments. Qualitative research will be conducted (interviews, document analyses and observations) in higher education institutions.