General Management
The general management of NWO currently consists of three persons: a General Director, a Director Policy Development and Support and a Director Institutes, Finance and Infrastructure.
Hans de Groene - Director General
As of 1 May 2011 J.H. (Hans) de Groene is the director general of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
Hans de Groene (1960) studied economics at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. In 1985 he started his career at the Ministry of Economic Affairs where he occupied various policy and management positions within the Directorate of General Economic Politics. In 1993 he became the deputy director and in 1997 director of the Spatial Economic Policy directorate. In 2001 he became director and deputy director general for the area of innovation policy. Since 2004 he has been Director of Innovation and Deputy Director General for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (since October 2010 within the newly formed Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation - EL&I). Press release appointment Hans de Groene
Contact Hans de Groene: Ms Jet van het Woudt (email j.vantwoudt@nwo.nl, phone +31 (0)70 3440 717, fax +31 (0)70 344 07 15
Jan Karel Koppen - Director Policy Development and Support
Dr Jan Karel Koppen (1948) studied psychology at the Utrecht University and took his PhD in Educational Sciences at the University of Amsterdam. His career started as a research associate at the Institute for Applied Psychology, and after a few years at the Centre for Educational Research in Amsterdam. His main research interests were in secondary and tertiary education. At the SCO-Kohnstamm Institute of the Universiteit van Amsterdam he became director of the higher education research programme.
In 1992, he was appointed deputy-director of the institute, responsible for operational management together with the coordination of research for the Faculty of Pedagogy and Education. In 2002 he transferred to the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) as Director of the Social Sciences Division. After a short period as acting director of the Policy Department, he now is appointed as director of NWO, responsible for policy development and support.
Contact Dr Koppen: Ms Els el Idrissi (email e.elidrissi@nwo.nl, phone +31 (0)70 3440 702, fax +31 (0)70 344 07 15
Ron Dekker - Director Institutes, Finance and Infrastructure
Ron Dekker (1964) studied econometrics at Tilburg University. Dekker started his career at the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market at Maastricht University. In 1995 he moved to the Faculty of Social Sciences at Tilburg University. During this period his research focus shifted from labour market research to data management. The latter was his starting point at the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO): in 1997 he became the head of the Scientific Statistical Agency (which later merged into the KNAW/NWO DANS institute on data archiving and networked services). Later he worked as a team coordinator on the Open Programmes at the Social Sciences Division. In 2004 he was appointed head of the Central Programmes and Institutes Department and he now is appointed as director of NWO, responsible for operational management and institutes.
Contact Mr Dekker: Mrs Frances Hoogenboom-Heijligers, f.hoogenboom@nwo.nl phone +31 (0)70 3440 547, fax +31 (0)70 344 07 15
