Organisation and governance

NWO-I Foundation

NWO-I’s full name is Foundation for Dutch Scientific Research Institutes. We are an independent foundation incorporated under private law (not a governmental organization). Because of our national interest, we are connected to the Dutch Research Council, NWO (a governmental body). NWO-I employs approximately 1,800 people.

Relation to NWO (Dutch Research Council)

NWO, or the Dutch Research Council, is a public-law organisation: a so-called independent administrative body (in Dutch: zelfstandig bestuursorgaan, or ZBO). NWO operates under the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and has a mission to promote research that has scientific and societal impact.

NWO-I, on the other hand, is an independent foundation: a separate legal entity and an independent employer. NWO-I is part of NWO, but is not part of the government. NWO supervises NWO-I because of the importance of the scientific research carried out at our institutes, and also to ensure the integrity of NWO-I as a public benefit organisation (in Dutch: algemeen nut beogende instelling, or ANBI). The members of the NWO executive board are also the members of the NWO-I board: the foundation board. They form a personnel union.

Governance and decision-making at NWO-I

The day-to-day management of the institutes is in the hands of the institute director, supported by the institute manager. The NWO-I Foundation Board bears ultimate responsibility for the policy, strategy and operational management of NWO-I as a whole.

NWO-I office

The NWO-I office in Utrecht supports the NWO institutes with policy, strategy and operational management, such as human resources and financial administration. In addition, the NWO-I office acts as a link between the NWO institutes and NWO’s domain organisation.

NWO-I foundation board

The NWO-I foundation board and the NWO executive board consist of the same six members. The executive board bears ultimate responsibility for the whole of NWO, including NWO-I. The foundation board deals with matters that concern NWO-I alone.

The members of the foundation board (and the NWO executive board) are:

• Prof. dr. Marcel Levi - President
• Drs. Anka Mulder - Vice President and portfolio holder for operations and finance
• Prof. Dr Jan de Boer – Chair of the NWO Exact and Natural Sciences domain (ENW)
• Prof. Ena Voûte – Chair of the NWO Domain of Applied and Technical Sciences (TTW)
• Prof. Antal van den Bosch – Chair of the NWO Social Sciences and Humanities domain (SGW)
• Prof. Arfan Ikram – Chair of ZonMw

Dr. ir. Peter Spijker, head of strategic support at the NWO-I office, is the secretary of the foundation board.

You can find more information about the members of the board on the NWO website

History 

On 1 January 2017, the former FOM foundation, founded in 1946, was merged with other NWO units to form a new organisation: NWO-I, the Institutes Organisation of NWO. The former FOM office was split into three parts: one part (granting) went to the NWO domain Science and one part to the Operations department of the new NWO.

The part that supported the former FOM Institutes (AMOLF, ARCNL, DIFFER and Nikhef) and the former university research groups (BUW) was transformed into the NWO-I office. The NWO Institutes ASTRON, CWI, NIOZ, NSCR and SRON were merged with this institutes organisation on 1 January 2018. HFML-FELIX joined NWO-I on 1 January 2025.