NWO-I, Institutes Organisation of NWO
NWO-I›About NWO-I
This image shows the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescopes

NWO-I’s full name is Foundation for Dutch Scientific Research Institutes. It is an independent foundation incorporated under private law (not a governmental organization). Because of its national interest, it is supervised by NWO, the Dutch Research Council (a governmental body).   

Ten national research institutes 

NWO-I is an umbrella organization for ten national research institutes: 

  • AMOLF - Physics of functional complex matter 
  • ARCNL - Advanced Research Center for Nanolithography 
  • ASTRON - Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy 
  • CWI - Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica 
  • DIFFER - Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research 
  • HFML-FELIX - High Field Magnet Laboratory en Free-Electron Lasers for Infrared eXperiment 
  • Nikhef - National Institute of subatomic physics 
  • NIOZ - Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research 
  • NSCR - Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement 
  • SRON - Space Research Organisation Netherlands 

NWO-I office 

The NWO-I office in Utrecht supports the NWO Institutes with policy and strategy, personnel and support, financial administration and communication. The NWO-I office connects the nine NWO Institutes with the domain organisation of NWO. 

Mission and vision NWO-I 

The ten national research institutes of the Dutch Research Council (NWO) operate from the concept of how science can change the future. They perform their resesarch together with scientists at Dutch universities and institutes and in many large-scale international collaborations.  
The institutes fulfil this role under 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.” Would you like to know more about NWO-I's mission, vision and work? You can find more information on our mission and vision page on this website. 

Employer 

NWO-I is the employer of more than 1.740 employees from nine institutes and the NWO-I office. HFML-FELIX joined NWO-I on 1 January 2025. NWO-I is not (yet) the employer for employees of this institute. 

Relationship with NWO 

NWO is an organisation incorporated by public law and is part of the Dutch government. NWO's task is to promote research with scientific and societal impact. NWO-I is an independent foundation, and thus a separate legal entity, and not part of the government. NWO does however supervise NWO-I because of the importance of the scientific research that is carried out in it, and to monitor the integrity of NWO-I as a public benefit institution. To this end, board members of NWO have a seat in the board of NWO-I without receiving benefits for these supervisory tasks 

History 

On 1 January 2017, the former FOM Foundation 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. 

Organisational chart NWO and NWO-I 

On this page, you will find the organisational chart for NWO and NWO-I. 

Confidental Infomation