Netherlands news roundup: 21-27 September

This week: journalistic independence, innovation excellence and a teaching shortage

In depth: The Dutch government plans to halve the annual budget of the country’s national initiative for promoting open science, a move that stakeholders have warned could significantly hinder the country’s progress in the area.

Full story: Budget for Dutch open science initiative to be halved

Also this week from Research Professional News

Netherlands receives first sum from EU Covid-19 fund—Initial €1.3 billion from Recovery and Resilience Facility will support quantum research and digitalisation

Here is the rest of the Dutch news this week…

Newspaper’s editorial independence strengthened

Eindhoven University of Technology has approved a new editorial statute for its internal newspaper Cursor, enhancing the paper’s journalistic independence. This follows recommendations from an independent committee that reviewed allegations that the university had censored the paper. While no structural censorship was found, the committee noted concerns among the paper’s journalists. The revised statute, signed off by the university’s executive board, is supported by all involved, the university said.

Projects win innovation awards

The EU-supported Information Technology for European Advancement scheme, which supports digitisation and software innovation, has given two Awards of Excellence to projects that have received support from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. Inno4Health, led by the Dutch technology company Philips, developed wearable sensors for healthcare and sports. The Smart project, with seven partners including Eindhoven University of Technology, applied real-time data analytics to traffic management. The awards aim to highlight examples of best practice.

Universities launch campaign for more teachers

The UNL association of Dutch universities has launched a campaign called Do Something That Matters, to encourage people to consider a career in teaching. It was prompted by a shortage of 13,500 teachers in Dutch primary and secondary education. “Without enough qualified teachers, students cannot receive the education they need to develop,” said UNL president Caspar van den Berg. The campaign will run nationwide until February 2025 to highlight the meaningful impact of the teaching profession.