News

The board of the NWO institutes organisation has appointed Ed van den Berg as interim director of operations for the bureau NWO-I. He takes over a large part of the duties from Christa Hooijer, who has been Director of Science at the TNO Unit Industry since September.

The board of the Institutes Organisation of NWO has appointed Prof. Peter van der Laan as interim director of the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR). He replaces Prof. Catrien Bijleveld until her definitive successor has been appointed. Catrien Bijleveld has been appointed a member of the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR). She will continue to work at NSCR on a part-time basis.

You are welcome at our new NWO location 'Nova Zembla', a sustainable office close to the A12 and public transport at Winthontlaan 2, 3526 KV  Utrecht.

At the behest of the Academy and NWO, an independent committee has evaluated the portfolio of the two organisations' institutes. The Committee concludes that these national research institutes increase the effectiveness of Dutch scientific endeavour. On 21 February, the directors of the Academy and NWO presented the report, with their response to it, to the Minister of Education, Culture and Science.

The Dutch Council of Ministers has decided that the Netherlands will be partner in the construction and management of the largest radio telescope in the world, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). NWO institute ASTRON coordinates the Dutch participation in the SKA. The ambitious project will lead to major discoveries about the nature of our universe and answer longstanding questions. On 12 March 2019 the international partners, now including the Netherlands, will sign a treaty agreement in Rome. The 30 million Euros allocated by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science is the basis for Dutch participation to realise the SKA. Read more: www.astron.nl

Last week NWO announced that it awarded seven proposals for innovative research infrastructure within the programme NWO Investment Grant Large, with a total budget of 17.9 million euros. With this programme, NWO funds large research facilities, within which researchers from throughout the Netherlands work together, often with international partners. Three investments are for the NWO Institutes ASTRON and Nikhef: DUPLLO: Digital Upgrade for Premier LOFAR Low-band Observing (ASTRON), Gravitational waves: the new cosmic messengers (Nikhef) en Searching for Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic-Ray Sources using a new Detector Concept in the Pierre Auger Observatory (Nikhef/Radboud University). The Dutch-Belgian research facility DUBBLE - managed by NWO-I - also received an NWO Investment Grant Large: ‘New x-ray fluorescence and absorption spectroscopy capabilities for DUBBLE’.

Science Weekend is the leading national event for science and technology! On Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 October companies, research institutes, universities and museums will open their doors. Several NWO institutes will also hold an open day during this weekend.

Since 1 September, a new director heads the High Field Magnet Laboratory HFML in Nijmegen: Prof. Peter Christianen. He succeeds Prof. Nigel Hussey who led the lab for five years. HFML generates the strongest continuous magnetic fields in the world and is an international, open-access user facility.

With an innovative new type of receiver, called Apertif, the field of view of the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope in the Netherlands has been increased 37 times. Apertif, developed by the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (NWO Institute ASTRON), will be officially opened today, on 13 September 2018 by deputy Cees Bijl of the Drenthe province. Today the 50-year anniversary of the telescope will also be celebrated.