NWO institutes ASTRON, CWI, NIOZ, NSCR, SRON and NWO-I to merge with effect from 1 January 2018
In October and November 2017, the boards of ASTRON, CWI, NIOZ, NSCR, SRON and NWO-I decided to merge. With this step, the decision-making process concerning the legal merger has been successfully completed. On 31 December 2017, the solicitor will execute the merger deed, upon which the merger will be a fact on 1 January 2018.
In the spring of 2017, all foundation boards of NWO-I and the aforementioned institutes took an intended decision to merge. That intended decision was submitted to the works councils, and these issued a positive advice. The proposal to merge was subsequently deposited at the relevant Chambers of Commerce and the statements of no appeal were received from the relevant courts in August.
Since 1 February 2017, NWO has had a new structure. In addition to a granting organisation with an executive board and three domains (Science, Applied and Engineering Sciences, and Social Sciences and Humanities) there is a separate institutes organisation for NWO (NWO-I).
NWO-I, in full: Netherlands Foundation of Scientific Research Institutes (NWO-I), has arisen from the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) and now contains the former FOM institutes AMOLF, ARCNL, DIFFER and Nikhef, as well as more than 200 university workgroups from the former FOM projects. With effect from 1 January 2018, the other NWO-I institutes will therefore merge with NWO-I: ASTRON, CWI, NIOZ, NSCR and SRON.