The Dutch knowledge infrastructure

In 2023, € 24.2 billion was spent on R&D carried out in the Netherlands (Statistics Netherlands, provisional figures). Companies are the largest funders (59 percent) with € 14.2 billion, followed by the government with € 7.1 billion (29 percent). The remaining funding comes from private non-profit organizations, from higher education institutions and from abroad.

Companies are not only the largest funders of R&D, they are also the largest performers of R&D. 69 percent of the research takes place at companies, while 26 percent of the research is done by higher education institutions. The remaining R&D takes place at public research institutions.

1. Businesses

More than half of all R&D activities in the Netherlands take place in companies. According to Statistics Netherlands, total R&D investments in 2023 were € 17 billion, spent by 19,387 companies (in 2021, figures on companies thereafter are not yet available). The government encourages companies to perform R&D through tax incentives. The most important tax measures for R&D are the Promotion of Research and Development Act (WBSO) and the Innovation Box. The WBSO has existed since 1994. Via the WBSO, companies can reduce their payroll tax and national insurance contributions on personnel costs in the field of research and development work. The Innovation Box has been available since 2010 and reduces the effective tax rate on profits derived from R&D or innovation activities.

The industrial sector invests the most (€ 8.4 billion in 2023). Two third of all private R&D investments (€ 11.3 billion in 2023) is spent by large manufacturing firms (with over 250 employees). They include companies with a strong R&D orientation like ASML, Philips, Booking.com, TomTom and Shell. Besides industry, the largest investments come from the services sector (€ 3.2 billion in 2023).

Dutch companies spend some of their research budget in the Netherlands and some in other countries. Likewise, some multinationals from outside the Netherlands conduct research in this country. Examples are Tata Steel and Danone. In a separate data publication, we provide insight into the R&D of companies to and from abroad.

All figures over 2023 are provisional. 
 

2. Higher education

2a. Higher education: universities
The activities of the universities are governed by the Higher Education and Research Act. Besides teaching and research, universities are also involved in the valorisation of knowledge. The 14 largest publicly funded Dutch universities are united in Universities of the Netherlands (UNL). There are also five smaller universities. These include 4 denominational universities and the Transnational University Limburg. 

Universities receive their funding from three types of funding streams:

• The first funding stream: direct government funding in the form of a lump sum.
• The second funding stream: government funding administered by NWO. This funding is awarded in the form of grants for researchers, a large proportion of which are awarded on a competitive basis, plus the funding of research facilities. The second funding stream also includes subsidies from ZonMw and KNAW.
• The third funding stream: this concerns the funding of research and education from public and private sources, contract research performed for public authorities, companies, charitable funds etc., and sources of funding outside the Netherlands, such as the Horizon Europe.

Income figures for the universities show that universities received € 10.6 billion in 2024 of which € 6.4 billion is research related. These numbers include the UMCs. 

2b. Higher education: university medical centers (UMCs)
All seven UMCs, which are united in UMCNL, are partnerships between a teaching hospital and the medical faculty of a university. They were all established between 1983 (when the AMC opened in Amsterdam) and 2008 (when MUMC+ opened). In 2018 The Academic Medical Center (AMC) and VU Medical Center (VUmc) administratively merged, after which they continued under the joint name Amsterdam UMC. The UMCs combine teaching and training of medical students with medical research and patient care (including top-level clinical care). Since training and patient care take place under the same roof, there is continuous interaction between innovation in professional practice and medical training. The combination of medical research and patient care ensures that both are of a high standard. Given the UMCs’ varied tasks and responsibilities, their statutory basis is also broad. UMCs operate within a legal framework that includes the Higher Education and Research Act, the Medical Research (Human Subjects) Act and various pieces of legislation governing patient care.

Staff numbers at the UMCs total almost 63,000 FTEs (for patient care, teaching and research), of whom 30% has a research task. 

The UMCs have several main categories of funding: central government (Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport), fees for patient care and competitive research grants (companies, EU, NWO/ZonMw). In 2024 the seven UMCs had a total joint turnover of € 12.6 billion (Statistics Netherlands, provisional figures). In 2019 approximately 30% of the total joint turnover was research related, however recent figures are lacking. 

2c. Higher education: the lectorates at universities of applied sciences
The lectorates perform practical research designed to link academic knowledge and knowledge innovation by professionals working in the public and private sector. The statutory basis for their activities is the Higher Education and Research Act. Initially only universities could appoint academical degrees for research positions. However, since 2023 universities of applied sciences have kicked of a pilot for their own doctorate trajectory: the Professional Doctorate.  

The lectorates at the 36 universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands were launched at the beginning of this century. The number of lecturers for practice-oriented research on higher professional education has risen between 2007 and 2024 from 270 to 789. The total employment of the lectorates is 3,556 FTE, of which 553 FTE lecturers, 1,810 FTE teacher-researchers, 369 FTE PhD students, 54 FTE postdocs, 47 FTE professional doctorate candidates and 723 FTE support staff. The lectorates receive lump sum funding from the universities of applied sciences, research grants from SIA (NWO’s special body for the management of practically-oriented research), and from international and regional sources (EU, companies, regional investment agencies). The lectorates have a total joint budget of € 511 million in 2024.
 

3. Public research institutes

3a. Public research institutes: NWO- and KNAW-institutes
NWO and the KNAW have their own unique place in the academic landscape. NWO is a major source of research funding (in conjunction with ZonMw), including funding for research at universities. NWO also has nine research institutes of its own employing 1,673 FTEs (NWO-Institutes annual report 2024). It has its own special statutory basis in the form of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research Act (NWO Act). The parent organisation NWO had total revenues of € 1.6 billion in 2024 (NWO annual report 2024); the NWO-institutes had a revenue of 285 million (NWO-Institutes annual report 2024).

The KNAW organisation includes ten specific research institutes, two institutes who provide infrastructure for research and two affiliated research institutes. Its statutory basis is the Higher Education and Research Act. These institutes employ 1,275 FTEs in 2024, of which 47% are research related. The KNAW had a total revenue of € 194 million in 2024; the KNAW-institutes are reported to have € 154 million in revenue (KNAW annual report 2024). The research-related turnover of the NWO and KNAW institutes amounted to € 393 million in 2024.

The majority of KNAW and NWO income comes from central government; in addition, the KNAW receives 30% of its funding from third-party commissions (KNAW annual report 2024).

At the beginning of 2019, the evaluation of the NWO and KNAW institutes portfolio was presented to the House. The committee concludes, among other things, that the institutes have clear added value and that they strengthen Dutch science.

3b. Public research institutes: public knowledge organisations
The Rathenau Instituut has identified the public knowledge organizations (PKOs) as a group and described them in Facts & Figures publication no. 17 (in Dutch). We also have a fact sheet on the financing of public knowledge organizations. The PKOs are characterized by a combination of research and knowledge-intensive services and are aimed at a specific subject or domain. Examples are the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) and the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). Public knowledge organizations generate, collect and disseminate knowledge to safeguard the well-being, prosperity and security of the Netherlands now and in the future. In this way they contribute to the realization of the responsibilities of the government (such as food safety) and to the social goals set by the government. In terms of governance, each PKO is linked to one of the core ministries, but together they function for the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Security and Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A number of these knowledge organizations have their own legislation (such as the RIVM Act), in others the legal framework is laid down in regulations. Some have a foundation form.

The Rathenau Institute distinguishes five different groups of public knowledge institutions in the Dutch knowledge infrastructure, based on their functions:

• Policy-oriented organisations focus chiefly on research in support of policymaking. They monitor societal trends, trace the real and potential consequences of policy, and evaluate policy.
• Government laboratories support the national government by executing its knowledge-intensive responsibilities. They, for example, perform forensic investigations, test foodstuffs and coordinate the National Immunisation Programme.
• TO2-institutes support businesses, industry and  government by conducting and/or facilitating research and innovation, often pre-competitively and in consortia with public authorities, businesses and knowledge-based organisations. They manage large-scale facilities for this purpose.
• Sector-oriented foundations combine research in support of policymaking with a focus on the knowledge requirements of professionals and their clients in the health care, sports, culture and security sectors. They do so by collecting and proactively sharing available data, monitoring trends and developing tools such as courses, guidelines and information leaflets.
• Professional research and training organisations combine research (in support of policymaking) with training for aspiring and qualified professionals who work in the defence, law enforcement and diplomatic sectors.

Funding differs from one institute to another, and consists of institutional financing from the ministries, government commissions and contract research for clients in the Netherlands and abroad. In 2024 the public knowledge organisations had a total income of € 3.5 billion.
 

Overview of research-related expenditure of higher education and public education institutions

In order to put all amounts of higher education and public education institutions in perspective, the figure below gives an indication of the amount of research-related expenditure in 2024.