Rathenau: government scraps 14 percent of research funding

Dutch government spending on research and development will fall by fourteen percent in the coming years. Spending will go from 9.7 billion in 2024 to 8.4 billion in 2029, according to the annual measurement by the Rathenau Institute.

Cabinet policy

The causes lie with cabinet policy. The government is making significant cuts to the National Growth Fund. This fund, established in 2020, would invest 20 billion euros in research and innovation. But the fund was already put on hold by the previous cabinet and the new cabinet came up with another destination for 6.8 billion euros from the fund.

In the meantime, there are significant cuts in research at universities and university medical centres, where, for example, the starter grants for early-career researchers have been abolished.

In the past, the Netherlands gave a relatively large amount of tax support to innovative companies compared to other countries, but other countries are overtaking the Netherlands. The United Kingdom, Belgium and Austria in particular have become more generous with tax benefits.

A lot of European money

The Rathenau Institute does see that the Netherlands is good at attracting European money for research and development. No less than nine percent of the Horizon Europe science fund goes to the Netherlands – about 3.7 billion euros since 2021. Only France, Germany and Spain will receive more.

HOP, Naomi Bergshoeff