Strong rise in government R&D spending not without challenges

The strong increase of R&D spending from the Dutch government comes with a few snags, the Rathenau Institute warns. “We know from experience that it’s not straightforward to spend such large sums effectively,” says Rathenau researcher Alexandra Vennekens. “We’ll be keeping an eye on investments the coming years, keeping track not only of budgets but also of actual expenditure. It’s not unheard of that these two figures differ significantly.” For scientific projects funded by the National Growth Fund, Rathenau worries that careers of scientists get stuck once funding dries up.

Direct R&D government investment increases 1.2 billion euros in 2020-2022, a comparative increase of 20 percent. The National Growth is the largest contributor, but the R&D budget of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science is increasing too, from 4.4 billion euros in 2020 to 5.0 billion euros in 2022. Most of the increase is used for additional university funding.