Themes
Healthy Living
Everybody wants to enjoy a long and healthy life. Health is a complex interaction between many factors such as: biological stressors; life history; lifestyle; physical, social and cultural environment, and the quality and accessibility of care facilities.
Research within the NWO theme Healthy Living generates knowledge to benefit quality of life: dietary advice for people with diabetes, genetic research to identify the causes of diseases and ICT systems for patient monitoring. Interdisciplinarity is an added value of this NWO theme: various disciplines from the arts, social sciences, humanities, and natural and life sciences work together on the same problems with a targeted approach.
Important trends in healthcare are increasing patient independence, quality and effectiveness of care, and the relationship between work and health. New knowledge is necessary not only for the prevention, detection or treatment of conditions but also for improving the quality of life.
Water and Climate
Water is essential for life on earth and vitally important for society. It also plays an important role in the climate. The natural cycle from ocean to atmosphere, back to earth via precipitation and via rivers to the oceans, exerts a crucial influence on regional and global climate patterns.
The Netherlands enjoys an international status as a centre of expertise in the areas of water management, water safety, water technology, maritime research and shipbuilding. Dutch researchers are also carrying out important research in the fields of wastewater purification, climate models and delta technology.
Within the NWO theme Water and Climate, research is being done into areas such as the fundamental principles underlying extreme weather, flood security, fresh water supply, changing ecosystems and climate predictability.
Cultural and Societal Dynamics
Society is changing under the influence of globalisation, technology, commercialisation and individualisation. Via Twitter, Facebook and Skype, people maintain contacts the world over and, sometimes, even revolutions are started. World views and how people view each other are changing, both nationally and internationally. The relationship between the continuing scaling up of human societies and the limited scale of people as individuals is a varied and dynamic area for research.
The central question within the NWO theme Cultural and Societal Dynamics is what connects people, and what divides them. This central question is addressed within the theme on the basis of various topics: identity and the forming of identity, comprehensible language and multilingualism, religion, sport, citizenship, culture and heritage.
Researchers are working on questions such as: How should school textbooks be written to ensure that they can be understood as easily as possible? How should we handle forms of religious expression in the public domain, such as headscarves or loud bell-ringing? What is the role of sport in the integration of different population groups?
Sustainable Energy
Biomass, nuclear fusion, wind turbines, solar cells, or maybe solar fuels? In many areas, scientists are on the look-out for sustainable energy sources capable of meeting our future energy needs.
NWO is encouraging top-class research into the energy supplies of the future within the NWO theme Sustainable Energy. A thematic approach is needed to develop radical new solutions capable of meeting the increasing demand for energy in a sustainable manner. As a result, the research questions in this field are strongly interdisciplinary in nature.
The theme Sustainable Energy is a broad one, ranging from research into energy saving, through energy storage and transport, to research into new energy sources. The theme does not just focus on the technology. Understanding the (geo)political and social challenges posed by the essential transition from fossil fuels to more sustainable forms of energy is also on the agenda.
Connecting Sustainable Cities
The world's population is becoming concentrated in larger and larger cities. This poses challenges for society. How to keep a city with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants liveable? How many roads are needed and of what type? Where are all of these people to live and work, how do they live together and move around?
How to guarantee the vitality, liveability and accessibility of cities is the central issue within the NWO theme Connecting Sustainable Cities.
Research within this theme focuses on every possible aspect: from accessibility for people, goods and flows of information to the liveability of cities and spatial development.
In all of these areas, NWO is funding innovative, multidisciplinary research, of a high scientific level that has an international orientation.
Materials: Solutions for Scarcity
Raw materials are becoming scarce. Oil, for example, that we use to make plastics. Other materials such as indium (in LCD screens), platinum (catalysts) or lithium (lightweight batteries) are also increasingly difficult to come by. Because they are running out, or they come from areas where trade is impossible.
Within the NWO theme Materials: Solutions for Scarcity, science and industry are joining forces in a bid to find alternatives. Lightweight, powerful batteries for example, which do not contain lithium. Smarter design processes, with less use of raw materials and more re-use of parts or materials.
The aim is to make materials with useful properties as efficiently and sustainably as possible, because the world’s population is growing, emerging nations are developing into major economies and we are using more and more resources, energy, food and water.
Creative industry
Diabetes patients measuring their blood levels using their smartphones. Virtual worlds where emergency response teams can practise disaster scenarios. The discovery of a 'new' Van Gogh beneath another painting. Science and creative industry reinforce each other.
Creative industry is the collective name for fashion and industrial designers, architects, advertising agencies and the creators of software and games. It also covers media and entertainment, the arts, cultural heritage and cultural events. This branch of industry has been one of the fastest growing sectors of the Dutch economy for a number of years now.
Via the theme Creative Industry, NWO is investing in scientific research into and for the creative production and commercial service industries. This ranges, for example, from software development for serious games, through research into the origins and workings of creativity, to rendering cultural heritage digitally accessible via the Internet and social media.
High Tech Systems and Materials
Within the NWO theme High Tech Systems and Materials, scientists are working on new materials, new components and new functionalities for high-tech applications, ranging from healthcare, lighting, computer chips, complex equipment, robotics, communications, logistical systems, aircraft and satellites to energy generation and safety.
Research areas within this theme contributing towards the technology of the future include: embedded systems, photonics, advanced materials, ICT research, mechatronics, medical technology, microelectronics, nanotechnology, sensor technology, fluid dynamics and the technical sciences in the broadest sense.
Agro, Food and Horticulture
The agricultural sector, food industry and horticulture together make a contribution of ten per cent to the Dutch economy. Dutch exports of agricultural and food products are the second largest in the world.
Within the NWO theme Agro, Food & Horticulture, scientists are conducting innovative research into the major issues in the agricultural sector, food industry and horticulture. The research has three priority areas: sustainable and safe production, healthy food, and food security from a global perspective. The challenge is to supply the world with healthy food as sustainably as possible.
By 2050, we are expected to have nine billion mouths to feed. Current production methods will be incapable of meeting these growing needs. Due to scarcer raw materials, uncertain yields due to climate change, and increasing damage to our environment, it is necessary to change over to a sustainable production system that produces greater yields while respecting animals, people and the environment.
