Ena Voûte new member of the NWO Executive Board and domain chair Applied and Technical Sciences

Ena Voûte is a professor at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). From 2012 to 2022, she was dean of the same faculty and since 2022 she has been Pro Vice Rector International Affairs. In this role, she supports the Executive Board of TU Delft, with a strong focus on innovation, sustainability, and international academic policy. Voûte focuses, among other things, on TU Delfts international strategy and its international relations. Since 2026, she has been involved with CESAER, the European network of technical universities. Voûte herself was trained in Industrial Design Engineering and has previously held various marketing and management positions at multinationals such as Unilever and Philips. The position of domain chair at NWO is a part-time role, which she will fulfill alongside her current position at TU Delft.

The Executive Board of NWO is the highest governing body of NWO. It consists of the chair, the vice-chair who is also responsible for Operations and Finance, and the four chairs of the NWO domains. They are appointed by the Minister of Education, Culture and Science on the recommendation of the Supervisory Board. The chair and vice-chair are appointed for a period of five years. The other members, who are also chairs of a domain board, are appointed for three years. Ena Voûte will represent the TTW domain in the Executive Board as chair of this domain board. Voûte succeeds Margot Weijnen, who retired on March 1 after two terms.

The Executive Board of NWO is pleased with this appointment. Chair Marcel Levi: “With Ena Voûte, NWO – and thus the TTW domain – brings in a colleague who brings a wealth of experience in the academic world, both nationally and internationally. She is known for her commitment to strengthening the role of technical universities in Europe and promoting change in academic culture, including a cultural shift in how we evaluate scientists. As the Executive Board, we look forward to working with her.”

As chair of the TTW domain board, Ena Voûte will advocate for the importance of practical applied research alongside free and independent research in the policy set out by the Executive Board of NWO. She says about this: “I am very much looking forward to contributing from the TTW domain to innovation and societal impact that we so urgently need today. Connecting knowledge and application is a passion in my life that I am very happy to dedicate to NWO.”