calendar tag arrow download print
Skip to content

Income of the Large Technological Institutes by funding source

data publication
Science in Figures
08 June 2023
income technology Funding LTI
In this data publication, we show the size and development of the income of the Large Technology Institutes (LTIs) by source of funding. Figure 1 adds up the LTIs. Figure 2 shows more detail for the Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR), Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN) and Deltares.

In short

  • Revenue NLR, MARIN and Deltares about 250 million euros
  • About 58 million euros derives from government funding for NLR, MARIN and Deltares
  • Since 2018 ECN no longer counts as LTI. This results in a break of the totals
Source: Input from the LTIs, supplemented with information from the annual accounts
Notes: Assignments include both public and private commissions, both from the Netherlands and abroad. Other income includes for example income from licenses or renting of prototypes. As of 2010, the demand-driven funding Deltares receives from the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment has moved from 'direct government funding' to 'contract income'. This causes an abrupt decrease in direct government funding between 2009 and 2010. This shift is in keeping with the way Deltares reports its figures in the annual reports as of 2016. Figures for the years 2010-2015 have been received from Deltares. For ECN, the consolidated income is used (including daughter companies such as NRG). As of 2018, ECN has merged with TNO. Its daughter company NRG continues on its own, but can no longer be classified as a Large Technological Institute. This creates a break in the trend. In the accompanying excel-file, data on the income, excluding ECN, can be found.
Source: Input from the LTIs, added with information from the annual accounts
Notes: Assignments include both public and private commissions, both from the Netherlands and abroad.  

Revenues remained the same for a long time, increase in 2018
The income of the LTIs has increased with € 138 million in the period 2000-2010, growing to a total of € 371 million. Until 2015, income fluctuated around € 370 million. From 2016 onwards, the income grows again. When we remove ECN's income from all years, we see that the income of the other three LTIs together stabilizes from 2009 onwards, around € 230 million. In 2018 income rises again.

Each LTI gets most of its revenue from contract assignments. Especially MARIN has a relatively large share of income from contracted work. Deltares has a similar situation, but the proportion of demand-driven research for the central government is much larger in the case of Deltares. From 2004 onwards the LTI-income from contracts increases annually, with a slight dip in 2013 and 2014.

Direct revenues from central government grow until 2009, but decline from 2010 onwards to € 63,6 million in 2017 - € 2 million above the 2000 level. In 2018, the central government funding for the remaining three LTIs grows by € 9,4 million (27 percent) compared to 2017. This is due to the extra investments in applied research announced by the government in their coalition agreement.

Related publications

Print this page