NWO has signed the manifesto Sustainable Thinking, Sustainable Doing from De Jonge Akademie and the Green Young Academy. With this step, NWO explicitly commits to a greener, future-proof knowledge sector. The manifesto calls on knowledge institutions to jointly take responsibility for sustainable choices in education, research, operations, and governance.
As a national research funder, NWO sees it as its task not only to make the research it finances and supports more sustainable, but also its own organization and institutes. “Further sustainability in science requires joint action. With this manifesto, we commit to concrete and measurable steps that we take in collaboration with the entire knowledge sector,” said portfolio holder Jan de Boer from the board of directors: “By bundling knowledge, reporting transparently, and putting sustainable choices at the center, we as a sector jointly build a future-proof knowledge landscape.”
Active role in sector-wide collaboration
By signing the manifesto, NWO emphasizes that it participates in sector-wide progress on sustainability and wants to strengthen existing initiatives. For example, NWO funds initiatives to stimulate national cooperation and recently started the Fund for More Sustainable Research as a first pilot.
The manifesto focuses on four pillars:
- Education: embedding sustainability in the curriculum
- Research: promoting socially relevant science
- Operations: moving towards climate-neutral knowledge institutions
- Governance: embedding sustainability in decision-making
NWO’s sustainability policy
The ambitions of the manifesto align with NWO’s goal to stimulate more sustainable research. Jan de Boer: “NWO wants to strongly focus on sustainability. Both from our role as a funder, to reduce the ecological footprint of researchers and research, and in our own operations. The ten NWO institutes are also taking strategic steps to make their (research) activities more sustainable through roadmaps.” Finally, NWO acts as a connector bringing together companies, social parties, and researchers to realize sustainability across the entire scientific field through collaboration, knowledge exchange, and networking.