Extra edition newsletter

New ALW strategy for 2010-2014

'Contours' is the title of the new ALW strategy document. For the Division of Earth and Life Sciences, it serves as an elaboration of the general NWO strategy document published in June.

The voyage of discovery of researchers through the scientific landscape of ALW, with mountains and valleys and continually unfolding new panoramas, takes centre stage. For the period 2010-2014, ALW has committed itself to three lines of action:
  1. ALW will provide plenty of opportunities for the freedom of research. For the absolute best research ideas, this means more than just continuing the successful Open Programme. We will also develop TOP grants, an instrument mainly intended for researchers after the Vici phase.
    2.   ALW stimulates the blossoming of scientific talent by means of
          individual grants such as Rubicon and the Innovational Research
          Incentives Scheme. The latter is for the best researchers
          in various phases of the scientific career ladder.

    3.   ALW is contributing to the development of four societally inspired
          themes that we wish to elaborate together with external partners:
          Water and climate, Healthy living, Sustainable energy,
          and Materials: solutions for scarcity.

Of course these three lines of actions are not the whole story. There are also investments in equipment, our work with international grant programmes, et cetera. ALW is committed to modern research areas such as the neurosciences, systems biology, ecogenomics, planetary boundaries, and computational geosciences as well as research that helps to tackle public issues in areas such as climate change, agricultural productivity and sustainable energy.
 
The chair of the ALW Divisional Board, Prof. Jacob Fokkema:
'The landscape of ALW research is characterised by peaks. Our quest is to find those peaks that can provide contours for our current knowledge; peaks that give pointers to our future'.
You can download Contours here.
To order a hardcopy of Contours please contact René Prop.