New year, new funds

The incoming Dutch government plans to invest billions of euros in research and innovation

After 10 months of deliberation, the newly elected Dutch government finally took office on Monday 10 January. The four governing parties only reached a coalition agreement in mid-December, following national elections last March.

The government wants to speed up innovation in the interest of solving societal problems. Its first step was to announce a fund for blue-sky research worth €5 billion, spread over 10 years. Another €700 million a year will be spent to reduce the workload at universities, to raise their core funding and to guarantee an appropriate range of smaller programmes.