On 13 July, NWO announced the composition of the Permanent National Committee for Large-Scale Scientific Infrastructure. The establishment of this committee results from the government's 'Wetenschapsvisie 2025' (Science Vision 2025). Professor of Political Science, Kees Aarts of the University of Twente (Institute for Innovation and Governance Studies, IGS), has been appointed as one of the twelve members. The committee is chaired by former vice-chancellor Hans Duijn of Eindhoven University of Technology.
Task
The first task of the committee is to identify all large-scale research facilities at universities, scientific institutions, applied research institutes (TO2) and government institutions. The foreign facilities that are accessible to Dutch researchers will also be included. This covers both physical devices - such as telescopes or particle accelerators - as well as less tangible facilities such as databases, biobanks and IT facilities. The committee will determine the demand for new facilities for fundamental and applied research and will also examine the possibilities for public-public and public-private partnerships.
Roadmap
The inventory will form the guideline for the update of the national roadmap for large-scale scientific infrastructure. The roadmap will include existing and still to be developed large-scale scientific infrastructure, which is vitally important for the development of science in the Netherlands. Once every two years, NWO will award 80 million euros to research facilities that are on the roadmap.
Further tasks of the committee include advising on the balance in infrastructure requirements of the various scientific domains (arts/social sciences, life/medical and science/technology) and advising on how best to provide for a national ICT research structure, partly in relation to the National Roadmap.
The first meeting of the standing committee is scheduled for 8 September 2015.
More information
More information about the committee and its tasks can be found on the website of NWO.
