Strategic mission NWO-I

Four-part mission

The ten institutes fulfil this role through a shared, four-part mission:

 "NWO institutes have a unique role in the Dutch research landscape. They contribute to world leading research, empower the Dutch research community, provide long-term perspective and help shape future society.”

Mission 1. Contribute to world-leading research

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Scientific research at the NWO institutes is driven by curiosity and is fundamental in nature. Fundamental research is an essential requirement for innovation. It is critical when addressing societal challenges and requires a high level of expertise, a long-term perspective, often costly infrastructure, and alignment with national or international organisations.

Each separate NWO institute has its own scientific mission and strategy, a strong scientific reputation and is at the cutting edge of carefully and strategically chosen scientific developments and research. The institutes are regularly assessed by independent review panels, ensuring their status as thriving institutes at the forefront of their field, focusing on highly relevant research questions, performing top-level research for the long term and successfully attracting and retaining international talent. Each institute is regarded as a leader by its peers in its respective field.

A key resource of every NWO institute are the professionals who work there: a diverse group of people from a wide range of backgrounds who each dedicate their own individual talents to  achieving the institutes’ goals. NWO institutes employ a wide range of engineering and technical staff, and our institute organisation offers an ecosystem in which these diverse professionals can thrive.

The unique combination of leading scientists and highly skilled technical staff creates an atmosphere of discovery and innovation. As a result, NWO institutes are invaluable to the Dutch science landscape and are recognised not only as international leaders in both science and technology, but also as preferred partners in international collaborations developing global research  infrastructures.

The institutes maintain their world-leading position by being agile and versatile, through constantly increasing their scientific strengths; exploring new research directions; actively scouting, training and hiring international talent; renewing their scientific infrastructure, both physical and digital; and collaborating extensively with universities, KNAW institutes, other knowledge institutes, and industry.

Mission 2. Empower the Dutch research community

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The NWO institutes are uniquely positioned in the Dutch science landscape. They fulfil a crucial national role and their missions explicitly incorporate the ambition to empower their respective research communities. Each institute accomplishes this by taking its own distinctive approach. From fostering extensive collaborations with universities and other public or private partners, to providing the community with research facilities and access to international large-scale infrastructures, developing scientific instruments, or any combination of these activities. These crucial
achievements by the NWO institutes help bring scientific endeavour in the Netherlands to the forefront of global science through research that crosses disciplinary and national boundaries.

For many NWO institutes, the development of cutting-edge scientific instruments and facilities is at the heart of their mission to empower the Dutch research community. The nature of these instruments and facilities is driven by the national scientific priorities of the Dutch research community and developed in cooperation with that community. Developing such state-of-the-art instruments, space missions, and facilities requires scientific innovation and cutting-edge technical expertise.

The NWO institutes also fulfil a strong supporting role in their respective fields of research. They offer the use of their state-of-the-art facilities to other scientific parties, such as Dutch universities and private partners, for the purposes of research and innovation. Very often this results in extensive collaborations and high-quality joint publications.

These facilities include for example the national research fleet, the LOFAR radio telescope, the ion-beam facility, high-field magnets and free-electron lasers. Furthermore, our institutes actively contribute to and offer Dutch researchers access to international research collaborations, such as CERN, ESA, ESRF, ITER and EMFL. Not only do the institutes provide access to these facilities, but their active research and development programmes also drive innovation for these facilities and advance international research collaboration.

Collaboration with universities, KNAW institutes and other parties takes a variety of forms. Knowledge sharing and exchange of personnel are two ways in which the synergy between the NWO institutes and their respective fields is made tangible. Many research leaders at NWO institutes also have appointments at Dutch universities, and our institutes actively seek out new opportunities for joint appointments for the mutual benefit of the institute and the university.

Another approach is to organise workshops or longer semester programs aiming to foster and accelerate collaborative research by facilitating the exchange of ideas, the development of joint knowledge and the building of lasting relationships between researchers.

When our staff teach at a university, for example, this creates a powerful link between scientific research and knowledge transfer. Also, our PhD students are connected to Dutch universities and their graduate schools. Moreover, NWO institutes have the national position and capability to organise and coordinate large-scale collaborative projects and can allocate staff and resources for major consortiums. This benefits science at Dutch universities and beyond.

Mission 3. Provide long-term perspective

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Many NWO institutes have fulfilled their role for decades. This is not only a testament to their value for the Dutch scientific community, but also reflects the intrinsic nature of the institutes: they exist to serve the long-term strategy and perspective in their scientific fields. NWO institutes are not driven by short-term priorities but have clear missions and long-term strategies to achieve their scientific goals. In some cases, these missions and strategies form part of large international collaborations with timelines that extend for decades (e.g. particle colliders, satellites, research ships, telescopes, fusion facilities).

Ambitions on this scale often involve developing and maintaining large-scale facilities, which comes with serious risks and requires major investment, not least in building a highly skilled and experienced workforce. NWO institutes are willing and able to make such commitments for their own research and on behalf of the entire Dutch scientific community. A stable base funding gives NWO institutes the capability to remain agile and take the lead in new research directions.

The institutes are inherently dynamic and strive for multi-disciplinary approaches to new topics, not only in terms of the science itself, but also by deploying technical know-how and expertise in addressing scientific challenges. In the past, NWO institutes have demonstrated their ability to shift their focus by developing and exploring novel scientific topics and, where appropriate, new institutes have been set up. Through the decades, the NWO institutes have confirmed their status at the forefront of science.

Mission 4. Help shape future society

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Today’s society faces a host of challenges – intellectual, technological and sociological. These challenges stem from a series of existential questions: where did we come from? How and where did life originate? How is the matter surrounding us structured? Meanwhile, crises with regard to climate and biodiversity, challenges with information and artificial intelligence, the transition to clean energy, migration and our ageing society constitute a specific set of urgent challenges.

Our social structures and our scientific approach are constantly evolving in response to these questions and challenges. This requires the NWO institutes to continually adapt while providing long-term stability and perspectives in their respective fields for the benefit of the entire scientific community and ultimately, society as a whole.

The NWO institutes have a long-standing track record of research that is relevant to society. From being at the forefront of nuclear energy, the transition to clean energy and the use of AI, to long-established data collection on topics such as climate events, crime and justice. Creating new knowledge and insights to address these challenges through fundamental research is at the core of our institutes. Moreover, by providing new understanding, research at NWO institutes helps shape the future, not only at a scientific level but also at a policy level. The NWO institutes are therefore geared towards active participation in science and society.

The institutes achieve this by generating novel scientific understanding in their fields. Sometimes this is the result of careful planning, but discoveries by serendipity are significant, too. Having thriving institutes ensures new ideas constantly float to the surface and serendipitous discoveries are bound to happen.

These achievements of our institutes are evidenced by their output, from scientific papers to advice issued to the government. In terms of government advice, the institutes contribute key solutions aimed at addressing the materials crisis (including rare earth elements), the climate and biodiversity crisis, the energy transitions and the AI and data transition. Furthermore, the institutes actively promote the use of their scientific results to drive innovation.

Of course, the NWO institutes cannot do this alone. They actively engage society and collaborate with all relevant stakeholders, from universities to government, and from applied research institutes to industry.