The Dutch R&D systemcharacteristics and trends, with a

focus on government funding

Jan van SteenMinistry of Education, Culture and Science, The

Netherlands

Madrid, 3-4 July 2008

A multi level R&D system

• The political and governmental level

• Advisory bodies

• R&D funding organisations

• Intermediary organisations and temporary task forces

• R&D performing institutes

• Research facilitating institutes

• Parliament, Cabinet, Ministries

• Advisory Council, Innovation Platform, Academy of Sciences

• Government, enterprises, other national funds, abroad

• Research Council, Academy of Sciences, Task forces on Genomics and ICT

• Universities, institutes, enterprises

• Liaison office for EU, ICT infrastructure, Royal Library

Increasing complexity in the science system

High ambitions in science policy …

• To be in the top of Europe• To have an excellent research climate, based on:

An ambitious climate Self management within scientific disciplines Focus on talent and talent development Scientific areas should fit to the agenda’s of government, the business

sector and societal organisations Research with a practical focus

• To achieve with Strengthening the role of pure scientific research A greater focus on national research priorities Solid social embedding of scientific research Independence, transparent accountability and proper quality management

… but a mixed performance today

• Very modest R&D-expenditure (€ 8,9 billion = 1.67% of GDP): in the middle group of OECD countries, and even below the EU average

• A relatively large public R&D sector and small private R&D sector, funding as well as performance

• Relatively few researchers and under representation of specific groups

• Scientific output: 2.5% of world output (ranked 10th), combined with a relative good productivity

• High citation impact score: 1.34 (ranked third worldwide)

A decreasing trend in R&D expenditure

1,6

1,8

2,0

2,2

2,4

'90 '91 '92 '93 '94 '95 '96 '97 '98 '99 '00 '01 '02 '03 '04 '05 '06

%

NLD OECD EU-27 EU-15

Government funding of R&D: why?

• Institutional funding for the maintenance of the knowledge infrastructure (basic research at universities and institutes, applied research institutes)

• For knowledge development for governmental policies (“evidence based policy”)

• Specific funding is a powerful instrument of (science) policy, that can steer the direction of R&D

• In addition to other instruments like legislation, regulations and dialogue

Policy issues related to funding

• Public versus private funding

• Institutional versus project funding (long term versus short term)

Assumption: a large increase of project funding

• The capacity for free basic research versus oriented research

• The increasing complexity of the system

Government funding of R&D: how much?

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90P

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-15

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Japa

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2005 1981

Government funding of R&D: how?

• Institutional funding• Basic institutional funding (the universities)• Oriented institutional funding (TNO, GTI’s)• Infrastructure and equipment• International institutes and programmes

• Project funding• Contract research• Open competition programmes• Thematic competition programmes• Consortium competition programmes

EU project on public funding of R&D

• Context: the PRIME network of researchers, funded through the Framework Programme of the EU

• Aim: to compare funding modes in a number of countries (Switzerland, Italy, France, Norway, Austria and the Netherlands), leading to country reports

• Specific orientation on the role and composition of project funding by instruments, which differs between countries (academic, thematic, innovation oriented)

• The Dutch project was largely based on the analysis of GBAORD data for the years 1975-2005

Some results of the Dutch project

• The share of government funding declined

• Two ministries are dominant: Science and Economic Affairs (more that 80 percent)

• Project funding increases most

• But: as a relative share it increases between 1975 and 1990, then it stabilizes

• The system is getting more complex!

Institutional versus project funding

100

300

500

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900

1100

1300

1500

'75 '76 '77 '78 '79 '80 '81 '82 '83 '84 '85 '86 '87 '88 '89 '90 '91 '92 '93 '94 '95 '96 '97 '98 '99 '00 '01 '02 '03 '04 '05

(197

5 =

100)

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%

% Project funding (right axis) Project funding Institutional funding

Funding types by ministry

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100%

Economic Affairs Science Other Total

Project funding Institutional funding

Some general conclusions on Dutch R&D

• A mixed performanceModest R&D expenditure, especially in the

private sectorBut a high scientific performance and impact

• In a increasingly complex organisational setting

• A number of major challenges to achieve the ambitions

Challenges

• Implementing a long term strategy for public and private investments in research talent and R&D (investing in high performing groups)

• Stimulating the inflow of talented researchers, national and international

• Based on an integrated effort of the different partners: government, research organisations, private sector

• With the Innovation Platform as main stimulating party