Directors of NWO Institutes visit Brussels to make contacts and create more visibility

Other members of the delegation

During the visit to Brussels, the directors were accompanied by colleagues from the NWO-I office: Peter Spijker, head of Strategic Support (S&S), Robbelien Kooistra and Patricia Vogel, both Strategic Advisers at S&S, and executive secretary Iris Koopmans. Patrick Schelvis, the coordinating policy officer of Knowledge & Innovation at the Ministry of Economic Affairs (EZ) was also part of the delegation. In the afternoon, they were joined by Jeroen Arts, coordinating policy officer Research and Science from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). Both Patrick Schelvis and Jeroen Arts regularly take part in European policy-making consultations.

Policy for research and innovation

The visit started with a meeting with Neth-ER, an association in Brussels established – partly through NWO - to inform the Dutch knowledge sector about European policy developments in the area of research, innovation and education. Next, the Dutch delegation, together with Jurgen Rienks and Joep Roet from Neth-ER, were received by Petra Smits, head of the Department for Research & Innovation, Space and Atomic Questions, Permanent Representation of the Netherlands to the EU. In the afternoon, they were joined by external speakers from the Directorate General Research & Innovation, part of the European Commission.

Frameworks for national policy

At the NWO-I office, Patricia Vogel initiates the establishment of connections with the European policy field. She explains that, although working with Brussels might seem highbrow, it can certainly have an impact closer to home: “The European policy agenda for research and innovation also determines Dutch policy because the Netherlands has committed itself to this European policy agenda. OCW and EZ prepare the viewpoints that the Netherlands contributes during the consultations of the European Member States. Therefore, policy influencing needs to be realised through both national and European contacts. For NWO-I, it is important that the institutes are aware of the subjects, and at the same time, the institutes can ensure that OCW and EZ know what is important for them.”

Long-term investment

Building up and maintaining contacts in Brussels requires a long-term investment, states Patricia: “You need to hold talks and raise your profile, and then, after a while, the contacts you make can help you strengthen your portfolio. Neth-ER knows the ins and outs of Brussels and can help us to open doors. The same applies to the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands to the EU in Brussels. In their turn, civil servants from the European Commission also benefit from having good contact with the field.”

Showcasing

Patricia continues: “The goal of each NWO Institute is to profile itself as an international expert. The Netherlands wants Europe to know that our national institutes do fantastic and important research, each with a specific mission. Achieving this requires the institutes to formulate their European ambitions and clearly showcase their subjects and expertise in Brussels.” The institute directors also recognise this need; they recently spoke out in favour of structural support from the NWO-I office to realise European ambitions.

Follow-up actions

 “I am pleased to see the current enthusiasm”, says Patricia. Due to her retirement, she is completing her activities at NWO-I and has passed on the responsibility for ‘Europe’ to her colleague Robbelien Kooistra. In November, the directors will discuss the feedback from the visit to Brussels and will base follow-up actions on this. However, one action has already been implemented: NWO-I has become a participant in the research and innovation workgroups of Neth-ER. As a result of this, NWO-I will be better informed about the latest developments concerning research and innovation policy, and the participants can contribute the institutes’ viewpoints.

A Knowledge Map for NWO-I

Following the visit to Brussels by NWO-I, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (Dutch acronym RVO, part of the Ministry of Economic Affairs) has been requested to produce a Knowledge Map. This is a detailed analysis of how NWO Institutes perform in the European framework programme Horizon Europe. Besides providing more insights into the programme components that the institutes already make good use of, such as the ERC (European Research Council) call, this Knowledge Map is also intended to reveal the opportunities in parts of Horizon Europe that focus more on innovation and societal challenges, such as EIC (European Innovation Council), EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology) and Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness. It is expected that RVO will present the Knowledge Map to the directors’ team in November.

Successor to Horizon

Robbelien says that in addition to showing how NWO-I is currently performing within Horizon Europe, the Knowledge Map will above all prove valuable for future plans: “The Knowledge Map will reveal where further opportunities lie. This is relevant in the runup to the successor of the framework programme Horizon Europe: the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP10) that will run from 2028 to 2034. The European Commission has already started the preparations for this, and Member States and the knowledge field are now providing input. This is another good reason why NWO-I needs to strengthen its ties with Brussels.”

In a later edition of Inside NWO-I, we will inform you about the outcomes of the Knowledge Map.

Text: Anita van Stel

Newsletter Inside NWO-I, October 2024
You can find the archive of the newsletter Inside NWO-I on the NWO-I website.