Private non-profit research funding

R&D spending and the PNP sector

R&D in the Netherlands is financed by companies, the government and the PNP sector. Over the past few years, PNP funds have financed an average of €400 million a year in research. This represents about 2,5% of the total expenditure on scientific research in the Netherlands.
 

Differences per sector of performance

In the higher education sector, funding from the PNP sector (5.9%) plays a more important role than in research institutions (1.1%) and companies (1.0%) (preliminary figures from the year 2022).
 

Health funds largest financier

The largest contribution for scientific research in the PNP sector comes from the health funds.

Overall picture
Over the period 2009-2019, we see an increase in the research expenditure of the health funds, with a number of fluctuations. These fluctuations are primarily caused by the changes in research expenditure of the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF) and will be explained below. In the other funds, small fluctuations can be seen in their expenditure on research.

In 2020, the health funds spend significantly less on research: 123 million euros. Here as well, KWF explains most of the decrease in research expenditure. Where between the years of 2009-2019 they spend on average 68% of their total expenses on research, this is only 53% in 2020. This is a consequence of the covid-19 pandemic, which has caused a decreased absorption capacity in the research field - as a consequence of which less research could be performed. The research expenditure of the other health funds decreased from 81 million euros in 2019 to 70 million euros in 2020 - a decrease of 13%. The total expenditure of this group (Excluding KWF), decreased by 20%. 

In 2021 we see the research expenditure increase again, approximately to the level of 2018. Since then it has remained at roughly the same level.

Research expenditures of health funds are diverse
Most health funds spend between one third and one half of their resources on research. Like in 2023, in 2024 the ALS Foundation spent the highest percentage on research: 63.9%. This is lower than in 2023, when it was 70.4%. In 2022, this percentage was even lower: 58%. The high research expenditure of the ALS Foundation is explained by campaigns such as Serious Request and Tour de ALS. The income generated through these campaigns has been spent on research (ALS Foundation, 2023). After the ALS foundation, the funds with the highest percentage of research expenditure are: MS Research Foundation (62.0%), Parkinson NL (57.4%) and Nederlandse Hartstichting (54.7%). 

In absolute expenditure, KWF is largest funder of research, at 54.7 million euros, although this is a substantial decrease from the 66.7 million euros in 2023. Almost all other health funds spent less than 10 million euros on research in 2023, with the exception of the Nederlandse Hartstichting (33.2 million euros), Stichting KiKa (22.4 million euros), Alzheimer Nederland (14.3 million euros) and Hersenstichting Nederland (10.3 million euros). 

KWF explains most of the fluctuations in research expenditure of health funds
As a large research funder, KWF has a lot of influence on the trend presented in the second graph. In 2014, 21.3 million euros was spent on research projects from the Alpe d'HuZes/KWF fund, which was initially budgeted for 2013. This largely explains the rise in research expenditure in 2014 as well as the drop in 2015. 

The fluctuations between 2017 and 2020 are also largely explained by KWF. In 2019, health funds' research expenditure rises with 66,7 million euros (36%). This is caused by a multi-annual contract between KWF and the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI), which is fully accounted for in 2019.