Permanent National Committee for Large-Scale Scientific Infrastructure appointed
The Governing Board of NWO has appointed 12 members for the Permanent National Committee for Large-Scale Scientific Infrastructure. Hans van Duijn, former rector of Eindhoven University of Technology, is the committee chair. This committee will itemise all of the large-scale research facilities that are accessible to Dutch researchers and establish which facilities are still missing. The committee will issue a strategic advice to the Governing Board of NWO about future investments in large-scale scientific infrastructure.
The committee is one of the outcomes of the 2025 Vision for Science and has been appointed by NWO on behalf of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. This committee has a permanent character in order to maximise the long-term and optimal use of investment opportunities in scientific infrastructure. Committee members have a broad involvement in Dutch science. They are highly regarded within both science and society. The entire committee has a broad overview of Dutch science. For the appointment of the committee, NWO asked KNAW, VSNU, TNO, VNO-NCW, the Jonge Akademie and the NWO divisions to nominate members.
Telescopes and databases
The committee's first task is to describe all of the large-scale research facilities at universities, scientific institutes, applied knowledge institutes (TO2) and government institutes. Foreign facilities that are accessible to Dutch researchers will also be included in this list. It concerns both physical equipment - such as telescopes or particle accelerators - and less tangible facilities such as databases, bio-banks and ICT facilities. The committee will establish the needs that exist for new facilities for both fundamental and applied research. The committee will also examine the possibilities for public-public and public-private partnership in the development of new facilities and the use of existing facilities.
Roadmap
The inventory will guide the update of the National Roadmap for Large-Scale Scientific Infrastructure. The Roadmap will cover existing and still to be developed large-scale scientific infrastructure that are vitally important for the development of science in the Netherlands. Once every two years NWO awards 80 million euros to the research facilities listed in the roadmap.
Further tasks of the committee include advising about the balance in infrastructure needs of the various science domains (humanities/social sciences, medical/ life sciences and exact sciences/engineering) and advising on how a national ICT research infrastructure can best be provided, partly in relation to the National Roadmap.
The first meeting of the permanent committee is scheduled to take place on 8 September 2015.