The NWO Research Institutes
NWO has eight research institutes. Their names are ASTRON, CWI, Royal NIOZ, NSCR, SRON, AMOLF, DIFFER, and Nikhef. The three last mentioned institutes – AMOLF, DIFFER and Nikhef – fall under the supervision of Stichting FOM. Clicking on the logos on the right side of this page will take you to their webpages.
As of January 2011 is the Institute of Netherlands History (ING) has joined forces with the Huygens institute of the KNAW (Read the press release for further information).
The eight NWO research institutes create focus and mass in Dutch scientific research. For their highly concentrated deployment of high-grade expertise and advanced technologies, they are recognised as pre-eminent high performance research centres. Nationally and internationally, they are authorities in their fields. They develop and exploit national research facilities and often mediate for the use of facilities abroad. Moreover, they form scientific centres of gravity because of the impact of their findings and their innovative technologies, the research & development.
The research of the NWO institutes is often characterised by a long running time, an infrastructure of large scale facilities, and transnational collaboration. Accordingly, the NWO research institutes coordinate national scale research projects and function as a home base for international research projects (when using research facilities abroad). In this way, the institutes pave the way for participation in (future) international research infrastructures and strengthen scientific research in the Netherlands.
Quality test
Every six years the NWO institutes are assessed by external international committees, but during this period there are also midterm evaluations. In all cases, the national Standard Evaluation Protocol 2009-2015 (SEP) is followed. The outcome serves as the basis for the development of strategies and new policies.
In the period 2005-2007 ASTRON, CWI, NIOZ, NSCR, SRON and the FOM-institutes AMOLF and Nikhef were assessed for the last time.
Follow the links to the evaluation reports:
In 2008 seven institutes underwent a midterm evaluation.
International evaluation committees will assess the eight institutes in 2011.
