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Minster Plasterk visits VU University Amsterdam’s Laser Centre

Twenty million euros for physics and chemistry.

On Thursday 8 October, Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Ronald Plasterk, visited our faculty’s Laser Centre in order to install the Breimer Committee. This committee is to advise the minister on the allocation of 20 million euros which the minister has made available to boost academic teaching and research in physics and chemistry in the Netherlands: 10 million for physics, 10 million for chemistry.

Fewer and fewer students are opting to study physics and chemistry. Some faculties have even been forced to scale down their operations substantially. Yet a strong grounding in physics and chemistry remains a necessity. Both disciplines are crucial to a robust Dutch industry. Moreover, physics and chemistry are at the heart of a sound academic infrastructure. Internationally, the Netherlands scores highly in these disciplines, but it is currently not investing enough to be able to retain this position. Extra effort is required to hold onto this international position. The minister’s allocation of 20 million euros for the physics and chemistry sector plan is a step in the right direction.

Six million of the 20 million euros is to be added to the NWO's (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research) budget, while the remainder is destined for innovation in physics and chemistry research and is to be distributed among Dutch universities on the basis of criteria which are yet to be defined. The Breimer committee, chaired by Mr Douwe Breimer (ex-Rector Magnificus of Leiden University), will publish its recommendations in the spring of 2010.