Brief review of NWO's activities in 2007

NWO's primary task is to stimulate quality and innovation in scientific research. Additionally, NWO assumes responsibility for knowledge transfer and knowledge application.

  

Background

In 2007, NWO initiated its strategy for 2007-2010 (Science valued!). There are 3 lines of action:

  • Opportunities for researchers: supply and retention of young scientific talent and encouraging excellent, groundbreaking research
  • Consolidating strengths: concentrated use of people and resources
  • Science for society: improved harmonisation between social questions and groundbreaking scientific research

  

Developments

For the 3 lines of action, a structural increase of 433 million euro in the indirect government funding budget is needed. Not all of the pledges for this have been received yet. However, in 2007 it was announced that:

  • the minister of OCW will make 150 million euro available for NWO's talent policy
  • the Netherlands Genomics Initiative will receive follow-up funding (271 million euro) for the period 2008-2012
  • the minister of OCW will make available structural funds of 10 million euro, increasing to 16 million euro, per year for investment in large research facilities
  • NWO will set aside 14 million euro from its own funds for themes

In 2007, an independent evaluation committee thoroughly scrutinised NWO. The report (May 2008) described NWO as:

  • “effective and efficient, with an undisputed position as a provider of grants in the scientific world”
  • essential for quality-based selection of scientific research
  • awarding grants that stand for high quality and prestige

Many of the funds available in the Netherlands within the innovation system are mistakenly not 'marketed' by NWO, even though NWO is simply the best in this, according to the committee.

  

Results

In 2007, the following results related to the lines of action were achieved.

Line of action 1 – Opportunities for researchers
(total of 3270 applications, of which 1033 grants awarded: 207 million euro)

¶ NWO deployed the following personal grants:

  • NWO Spinoza Prize
    recognition for international top researchers (4 prizes, ca. 6 million euro)
  • Innovational Research Incentive Scheme
    facilitating researchers in various (Veni, Vidi, Vici) career phases (1324 applications, 295 grants awarded, ca. 145 million euro)
  • Rubicon
    experience abroad for young researchers (277 applications, 93 grants awarded, ca. 5.4 million euro)
  • Top Talent
    free promotion route for talented graduates (128 applications, 41 grants awarded, in total ca. 16 million euro for 2 rounds)
  • Simon Stevin Meester ('Master')
    recognition for top researcher in applied research (1 prize, 0.5 million euro)
  • Simon Stevin Gezel ('Journeyman')
    talented PhD student with an eye for utilisation (1 prize, 5000 euro)
  • Aspasia
    female Vidi of Vici becomes senior lecturer or professor (19 promotions, 1.9 million euro)
  • Mosaic
    retaining talented graduates/undergraduates from ethnic minorities for research (46 applications, 22 grants awarded, ca. 4 million euro)
  • Meervoud
    female researchers from the Earth and Life Sciences (ALW) and Physical Sciences (EW) become university lecturers (6 promotions, ca. 1.2 million euro)
  • Athena
    female Veni in the Chemical Sciences (CW) become university lecturers (first grants in 2008)
  • Fom/v
    retaining female physicists in science (300,000 euro per year)

¶ for the Free Competition for innovative research projects an additional 23 million euro is available (in 2007, 930 applications, 288 grants awarded)

¶ NWO contributes to or funds equipment for these programmes:

  • Investment Subsidy NWO Large equipment with a purchasing price of more than 0.9 million euro (16 applications, grants to be awarded in 2008)
  • Investment Subsidy NWO Medium equipment with a purchasing price of between 0.11 and 0.9 million euro (78 applications, 24 grants awarded, ca. 6.7 million euro)
Line of Action 2 – Consolidating strengths
(total of 743 applications, of which 376 received grants: 209 million euro)

¶ the NWO institutes lie at the heart of consolidating strengths – these perform excellent research and guarantee an outstanding national research infrastructure (9 institutes, 1326 fte of which 653 fte scientists, ca. 125 million euro)

¶ researchers make use of large international facilities (ISIS, DUBBLE, telescopes)

¶ the first phase of the national supercomputer Huygens has been realised (in 2007, a total of ca. 45 million euro was spent on large-scale facilities)

¶ NWO cooperates with (inter)national partners

  • for example, in leading space research with HIFI and LOFAR
  • in 21 EUROCORES and 22 ERA networks
  • in EURYI, European programme for future disciplinary world leaders (in 2007, 3 of the 20 grants went to Dutch researchers, in total ca. 3.5 million euro)
  • via cooperation and research programmes in the US, Russia, Asia and developing countries

¶ NWO funds 89 current research programmes in 9 cross-disciplinary themes (357 applications, 95 grants awarded, ca. 58 million euro)

¶ NWO also wants to set up NRIs (National Research Initiatives) but lacks sufficient resources for this

¶ NWO is cooperating in the national roadmap for large-scale research facilities but sees more opportunities in an open, national competition, supported by a considerable capital injection similar to the BIG Facilities

Line of Action 3 – Science for society
(total of 184 applications, of which 76 received grants: 55 million euro)

¶ socially-inspired programmes

  • via 13 (new) cross-disciplinary themes however, due to insufficient financial support, NWO can only initiate these in phases (in 2007: 2 current programmes, 35 applications, 23 grants awarded)
  • via SmartMix cooperation between companies and/or social organisations together with knowledge institutions for the purpose of economic, social-societal and cultural innovation that will enable the Netherlands to shine at a national/international level (in 2007: 7 projects started, ca. 100 million euro). The ministries of OCW and EZ simultaneously announced that they would stop funding this programme of NWO and SenterNovem
  • via Casimir knowledge transfer between science and the private sector (31 applications, 15 grants awarded, ca. 1.5 million euro) was also stopped
  • Valorisation grants supporting university researchers to commercialise knowledge from research (65 applications, 32 grants awarded, ca. 2.2 million euro)

¶ taskforces

  • ACTS (sustainable chemistry) 5 current public-private partnership programmes, ca. 11 million euro
  • ICTRegie (strengthening ICT knowledge infrastructure) ca. 3 million euro
  • NGI (genomics) ca. 21 million euro

¶ knowledge transfer and communication

  • via press releases and research results (Research reports), translated for a wide public in 2007: ca. 190 (for the second occasion a collection of selected research results were published in the popular book Op onderzoek – Wetenschap in Nederland (In search - Science in the Netherlands)
  • via a range of different podia in which research and the researcher come into contact with the press, knowledge users and the wider public
last modified on 29 August 2011