NWO's activities in 2006 in a nutshell

In 2006, fulfillment of NWO’s mission – to stimulate quality and innovation in Dutch science – was still based on its strategy Themes plus Talent. The year 2006 was also the starting point for the new strategy Science Valued! in which NWO, together with its partners, consolidated its role, opportunities and ambitions for 2007-2010 in the knowledge domain.

NWO’s mission is stated in the NWO law. The strategy that formed the basis for NWO’s activities in 2006 is formulated in the strategic paper Themes plus Talent. The key targets of Themes plus Talent are

  • Themes
  • Talent
  • Internationalisation
  • Infrastructure
  • Communication and knowledge dissemination

the results of which are reported in the formal Annual Report 2006. The Annual Report provides – mainly through NWO’s official accountability indicators and its financial report – an overview of the progression of NWO’s policy on science.

In the following years, NWO's activities will focus on three lines of action in the strategic memorandum Science Valued!

  • opportunities for researchers
  • consolidating strengths
  • science for society

that was officially presented on 22 May 2006. Initial results will be presented in NWO's Annual Report 2007.

The year 2006 in a nutshell

NWO attaches great importance to partnerships with social parties. In 2006 this collaboration took the form of, among others, of a number of already existing cooperative ventures with several ministries besides OCW:

  • Ministry of Economic Affairs (through STW, Smart Mix, monitoring of BSIK programmes);
  • Ministry of Health (through ZonMw en Academic Workplaces Public Health);
  • Ministry of Foreign Affairs (WOTRO Science for Global Development);
  • Ministry of General Affairs (Practical Academic Workshop);
  • various ministries in the NWO thematic programme Contested Democracy;
  • ministries, knowledge institutions and businesses through temporary taskforces ACTS, NGI and ICTRegie.

Talent
NWO invests in the intellectual capital of young scientific talent in order to secure a future leading position in science for the Netherlands. To achieve this goal NWO uses instruments such as:

  • NWO Spinoza Award (4 prizes)
  • Innovational Research Incentives Scheme (208 grants)
  • Rubicon (95 grants)
  • Top Talent (new: 128 applications in 2006, 41 grants in 2007)
  • Casimir (15 grants)
  • Aspasia (connected with Innovational Research Incentives Scheme, 17 grants)
  • Mosaic (23 grants)
  • within the various NWO divisions, subsidy schemes aiming at individual researchers and relating to their specific area of expertise, e.g. MEERVOUD (4 grants), FOm/v, Simon Stevin Meester and Gezel (1 grant both).

This talent policy in which the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme plays a central role, is very succesful. Young researchers are stimulated to give an essential push to their career, and many laureates of the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme received tenure positions at universities as associate professor or professor.

Themes
NWO is being confronted by society’s issues of ever increasing complexity. Therefore, it initiates multidisciplinary research. Nine themes epitomise that approach: Shifts in Governance, Cognition and Behaviour, Cultural Heritage, Digitalisation and Information Technology, Ethical and Social Aspects of Research and Innovation, Fundamentals of Life Processes, Nano-sciences, Emerging Technologies and System Earth.

In Science Valued! 13 themes are defined: Conflicts and Security, Creative Industry, Cultural Dynamics, Sustainable Earth, Dynamics of Life Courses, Brain and Cognition, New Methods for Production, Storage, Transport and Use of Energy, Knowledge Base for ICT Applications, Responsible Innovation, Dynamics of Complex Systems, Use of Nanosciences and Nanotechnology, New Instruments for Health Care and Systems Biology.

Within the framework of these nine 'old' themes 92 research programmes were in progress and nearly 83 million euros were invested in 2006.

The Free Competition – grants aiming at high-risk and innovative research proposals – is flourishing as well. The NWO Free Competition scheme of 98 million euros offered opportunities for researchers to expand their groundbreaking ideas, without any programmatic or thematic restrictions.

Internationalisation
NWO is convinced that international cooperation and competition contribute to the quality and innovative character of research. The problems facing the Netherlands are also more and more often global issues. NWO therefore is actively involved in international developments, among others by

  • creating the European Research Council (ERC);
  • participating in the ERA-nets, Technology Platforms, Joint Technology Initiatives;
  • participating in the EuroHORCs and EURYI (5 grants for Dutch researchers);
  • cooperating with countries outside Europe, e.g. via WOTRO; 
  • NWO subsidy instruments for stimulating international exchange and cooperation

In this approach NWO cooperates with a lot of science organisations especially in Europe, to create the focus and critical mass required to be able to compete with the United States and the emerging economies.

Infrastructure
An efficient infrastructure is a vital factor in creating a challenging and exciting research environment. NWO contributes in various ways both nationally and internationally to strengthening research infrastructure. This includes:

  • National Programme for Investments in Large-scale Research Facilities (5 grants of 100 million euros in total);
  • the programmes Investment Subsidy NWO Large (5 grants, nearly 10 million euros) and NWO Medium (27 grants, more than 14 million euros);
  • financing computing time, measuring time and cruising time at national and international research facilities;
  • coordinating and sponsoring the national high-end computer infrastructure via NCF (6,8 million euros);
  • investments in infrastructure via the NWO institutes

In 2005, the NWO institutes ASTRON, CWI, ING, NIOZ, NSCR en SRON were evaluated by international committees; they all received the predicate “very good” to “excellent”. In 2006, AMOLF was graded “excellent”.

Communication and knowledge dissemination
NWO attaches great value to a self-conscious and transparent accountability, good communication with the various stakeholders, a well-organised presentation of subsidies, and an up-to-date overview of the results of NWO funded research. These objectives are reached by

  • policy communication and Public Affairs;
  • communication on grants;
  • talent support through Talent Days and Talent Classes;
  • stimulating and facilitating scientific discourse;
  • knowledge transfer and communicating science to the press and the general public.

Science was very much present in Dutch society, with over 1,700 articles in Dutch general media about NWO and NWO funded research.

NWO and broadcasting company VPRO received 19,000 entries for the National Science Quiz. The television broadcasts attracted 2.6 million viewers.

In 2006, NWO discarded its traditional annual report. Instead, NWO published

  • the book Verwondering - Wetenschap in Nederland, intended for a general readership, in cooperation with Boom publishers for a wide audience interested in science (edition 4,500);
  • a special edition of the corporate magazine Hypothese (Synthese), aiming at researchers and professional relations (edition 15,000);
  • a formal annual report comprising the essential data of 2006 compiled according to the accountability indicators and supplemented by the financial annual accounts (Dutch and English versions);
  • a CD-ROM containing detailed project information about awarded, current and completed research.

Efficiency and transparancy
NWO makes every effort to do its work for science and society as effectively, efficiently and transparently as possible. This means that NWO permanently pays attention to the possibilities to improve its selection procedures.

Investments and outcomes
In 2006, NWO invested 523 million euros. With these funds over 5,000 researchers did their creative, scientific work, resulting in almost 15,000 articles (48 in Nature and 16 in Science), PhD theses, presentations, books and other publications.