Budget Day: government invests in higher education and research again
The government will invest more than €580 million extra per year in higher education and research in the coming years. This largely reverses the earlier cuts, according to the documents released on Prinsjesdag (Budget Day in the Netherlands).
Universities of the Netherlands have responded positively to the plans. ‘The Netherlands faces significant challenges’, says its president Caspar van den Berg. ‘Whether it’s our economy, our security or the energy transition, we cannot address them without academic knowledge. With this budget, the government is ensuring that students receive a good education and that universities can contribute to the solutions the Netherlands needs.’
Joining forces
Specifically, the government is making a permanent investment of €132 million in the sector plans, under which universities agree among themselves which institutions will focus on which research areas. These plans have already proven to be an effective instrument for strengthening academic disciplines.
They enable universities to join forces, invest collectively in leading fields of research and build long-term research capacity that keeps the Netherlands at the forefront internationally. In this new round, the sector plans will focus primarily on digitalisation and AI, security and resilience, energy and climate technology, and life sciences and biotechnology.
As these investments are made, it is important to connect technological developments with expertise from the humanities and the social and behavioural sciences. This will help ensure that developments such as AI and digitalisation contribute responsibly to societal resilience, public values and broad prosperity.
Encouraging innovation
The government is also making a permanent investment of €154 million in the Talent Strategy for higher education, and a permanent investment of €54 million in academic infrastructure. It has also announced that it will allocate 30 million euros annually to research valorisation at universities. Finally, the government aims to encourage innovation through a new round of the National Growth Fund.
‘We must carefully maintain a balance’
For universities, the budget reflects important intentions, says President of the Executive Board, Luc Sels, on LinkedIn. At the same time, he believes that universities themselves also have a responsibility to help realise these ambitions.
‘It is precisely here that we must carefully maintain a balance. A university is not an implementing agency. Not every social or economic policy can automatically become a university priority. We must continue to make room for curiosity-driven research whose applications are not yet apparent, for disciplines that cannot immediately be measured solely in terms of economic return and for critical reflection, including on the choices made by the government and society.’