The NWO budget 2026 has been prepared and approved by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). The budget is NWOs annual funding request outlining objectives and ambitions for the coming year and the required resources. This request, including the outlook until 2031, incorporates the cuts imposed by the outgoing Schoof cabinet.
Despite a new coalition agreement with positive signals, these cuts are not yet definitively off the table. In the medium term, NWO will therefore invest less in the Netherlands key resources – knowledge and innovation – affecting our top position in science, strategic autonomy, and broad prosperity.
At a time when major challenges demand innovative solutions, the previous cabinet introduced significant cuts to education and science. NWO, as a science funder, is not exempt. Despite a new coalition seemingly aiming to reverse this, these cuts remain a fact for now. The budget will shrink by 25% over the coming years: from €1.6 billion in 2025 to €1.2 billion in 2031. This forces NWO to critically assess its resources, as it will have to fulfill its public task – as currently defined – with less funding.
The three causes
OCW applies a cut rising to €146 million in 2031: €71 million on the lumpsum and €74 million on specific programs – partly via the Research and Science Fund – such as Open Science, the Teacher Fellowship, and Large-scale Scientific Infrastructure (GWI). Furthermore, the National Growth Fund stops – €150 million less from 2028 – and about €100 million in (currently) temporary assignments remains in the books. Sometimes NWO can partly compensate. For example, NWO covers the Open Science shortfall from other resources because access to science is essential. However, the teacher fellowship ends after 2027, and NWO continues to express concerns about all consequences.
The lumpsum: unearmarked funds
NWO must fill the lumpsum cut itself, seeking a balance between cuts on unrestricted and thematic research. NWO hopes to limit the impact on individual programs as much as possible. Due to the free spirit of researchers – who dare to explore uncharted paths – the national importance of the ten NWO institutes, and the societal impact via practice-oriented research and valorization, NWO decided not to cut Open Competition, institute research, practice-oriented research, and valorization programs.
Still, savings must be made in the coming years, balancing distribution over the National Science Agenda (NWA), talent and infrastructure programs, and the Knowledge and Innovation Covenant (KIC). NWO also makes limited cuts to Open Science and its own administrative costs, complying with government-wide savings on the civil service apparatus. A difficult decision was to phase out the User Support Space Research program over time to maintain other relatively smaller programs, such as Caribbean research and the Dutch Polar Program.
What do NWO and science already notice in 2026?
In 2026, the effects with a total expenditure of €1.7 billion are still less noticeable. NWO can spend more than it receives in 2026 because many grants come from investments by previous cabinets: there is often a year between budget commitment, execution, and allocation. NWO can also strategically choose to increase some budgets in 2026, mainly digital infrastructure, European partnerships, and NWA. In the longer term, if the new cabinet does not reverse some cuts, the effects will become increasingly noticeable.
NWO emphasizes: keep investing in knowledge and innovation
The budget was prepared awaiting the NWO evaluation 2020-2024 and a new cabinet that wants to invest more in research, knowledge, and innovation. NWO will certainly respond to this opportunity. Meanwhile, despite positive signals from the new coalition agreement, it continues to express concerns about our position as a knowledge country. Research is becoming increasingly dependent on scientific infrastructure, which is now being cut, and many innovations – from safety, healthcare, climate to digitization – will not materialize. Meanwhile, Europe calls for investing 3% of GDP in research and innovation. The Netherlands stands at 2.3% and is falling behind. This contrasts with the Draghi and Wennink reports, which strongly advise drastic investment. Especially given the geopolitical situation, where knowledge is increasingly used as a power tool and strategic autonomy gains urgency.
Vice-chair Anka Mulder: “NWO has carefully balanced saving and investing and continuously seeks opportunities to advance research, knowledge, and innovation, such as our collaborations with the Ministries of Climate and Green Growth and Defense. Stable funding of science remains essential to advance the Netherlands.”