Workshops will elaborate exemplary routes of Dutch National Research Agenda

About the Dutch National Research Agenda
In November 2014 the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science published "Vision for Science 2025, choices for the future", which contained a sketch of the desired future of science in the Netherlands. In the Vision for Science it is stated that science must in the future more strongly focus on major societal challenges; collaboration between civil society organisations, companies and scientific institutions is vital for the circulation of knowledge. The joint formulation of a Dutch National Research Agenda must make an important contribution to that exchange of knowledge.

Workshops
For the further elaboration of the exemplary routes of the Dutch National Research Agenda, workshops will be organised in the coming months at which researchers from different disciplines can exchange ideas with each other.

About the Dutch National Research Agenda route 5
Dutch National Research Agenda route 5 is driven by the curiosity-based research in the area of space, time and matter with questions that can count on considerable interest and fascination from society. Research that is not possible without advanced, innovative technology and in which the developments in this area can in turn lead to surprising technological innovations and new applications. Scientific challenges in this area have many different facets. The following key questions have been identified to give direction to a coherent elaboration of this route and these can roughly be categorised as 'small', 'large' and 'emergent'.

What are the elementary particles and forces and what are the dynamics of space and time?
Obvious stakeholders in this part of the route are researchers in high-energy physics, as well as philosophy, mathematical physics, astronomy and pure mathematics (symmetry and geometry). The focus is the search for elementary particles, including dark matter, the study of gravitational waves, black holes, and the development of a theory of quantum gravitation. National and international experimental infrastructures with their demonstrated influence on technological innovation and spin-offs are also very important in this context.

What are the content, evolution and origin of the universe?
In this question cosmology, astroparticle physics, astrochemistry and astronomy overlap each other. At the same time the previously stated stakeholders also play a role in this. Research in high-energy physics, astrophysics and cosmology mainly finds common ground in questions about the sources and detection of gravitational waves, in the search for dark matter, and in the development and testing of models about the origin of the universe. The existence and further development of groundbreaking national and international observation facilities and instruments is also an important factor for technological innovation and spin-offs.

How does the interaction between building blocks of matter lead to new and unexpected properties and behaviour?
The collective behaviour of large numbers of building blocks (from quarks to molecules) can be rich and unpredictable and depends on the complex interaction between these building blocks, the geometry and the symmetry. The emergent behaviour surpasses the properties of the individual building blocks alone. This theme connects various disciplines such as physics and chemistry, and in complexity and information theory emergence also plays an important role. Important examples are the phase transition to the quark-gluon plasma, the study of topological systems, emergent gravity, self-organisation, and non-equilibrium processes.

More information about the workshop Dutch National Research Agenda route 5
More information about the programme and the registration form can be found at www.nwa-route5.nl 

FOM and the Dutch National Research Agenda
More information about FOM and the Dutch National Research Agenda can be found on the FOM website.