NWO wholeheartedly endorses the follow-up statement from ALLEA, the European federation of academies of sciences. In February, the federation published a statement expressing its serious concern about the growing threats to academic freedom, both in the US and beyond. NWO supported this at the time backed. This statement has been widely shared worldwide and endorsed by more than 170 organizations. To further emphasize the urgency and broader relevance of all developments, ALLEA released a follow-up statement last week. This second statement emphasizes that the threats we are witnessing extend far beyond the United States. With this second statement, ALLEA reaffirms the need for a strong, collective, and ongoing response from the scientific community. 

Current Threats to Academic Freedom in the Netherlands 

The newly released report from KNAW specifically addresses  academic freedom in the Netherlands. Regarding four themes, the current threats to academic freedom in the Netherlands are analyzed: 1. Funding and steering of research and education, 2. Intimidation of scientists, 3. Collaboration with third parties, and 4. Tensions within the academic community. KNAW calls on various parties to take measures on these crucial themes to better protect academic freedom in the Netherlands.

NWO provides a brief initial response to the first and third themes. 

Funding and Steering of Research and Education

NWO is called upon in the report, along with other science financiers, to achieve a good balance between unbound and steering of research. NWO has traditionally had several research programs that primarily focus on free and unbound research, namely the Open Competition and the Talent Program. At the same time, NWO is also building thematic and interdisciplinary programs, where researchers collaborate with various societal stakeholders to achieve maximum impact for society (for example, NWA, KIC, NGF). Even within the thematic programs, there is room for academic freedom: the themes are broadly established, but within that, researchers have a lot of freedom to determine what they want to research and how. 

Both unbound and thematic programs can and must coexist. NWO has long been striving for the right balance between the distribution of resources for unbound research and thematic programs. The ratio of available resources has been about 50:50 for years. In recent years (when more money became temporarily available under the previous Minister of OCW Dijkgraaf), NWO invested extra in the Talent Program and the Open Competition.

Collaborating with Third Parties

To create scientific and societal impact, it is essential to address issues and challenges in collaboration and in coherence. Collaboration is part of science, within and across borders, knowledge institutions, and disciplines. NWO stimulates, facilitates, and invests in research collaboration; between researchers, across the boundaries of institutions and disciplines, and with societal partners and the business community. NWO is aware that collaboration can lead to discussions. Therefore, NWO already came up with a framework for collaboration with third parties, mandatory for all employees at NWO and all researchers working at NWO Institutes. Clear agreements must be established for every collaboration. This framework is therefore precisely intended to counteract any limitations that may arise from collaborations (as the KNAW report states). 

Developments

As NWO, we will further study the report and continue to follow developments on this matter. KNAW would also like to debate whether academic freedom should be legally better safeguarded. In the coming weeks, the topic of academic freedom will also be discussed in the House of Representatives, and next week KNAW will organize a meeting at the Balie in Amsterdam on the principle.