{"id":123420,"date":"2021-02-23T15:59:12","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T14:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=123420"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:25","slug":"knaw-stands-up-for-academic-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/02\/23\/knaw-stands-up-for-academic-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"KNAW stands up for academic freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fierce battle for research funds is having an impact on academic freedom, argues Dutch science association KNAW. Researchers are increasingly being constrained by a spectrum of requirements and conditions.<\/p>\n

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The headquarters of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). <\/span><\/p>

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Dutch researchers have been saying it for years: our resources are too limited. As long as government funding lags behind, many researchers find themselves having to jump through hoops from one project grant to the next, which is why many of them apply for funding from organisations such as the Dutch Research Council (NWO) or the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMW).<\/p>\n

Funding and scope<\/h2>

But a report<\/a> published by a Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) committee on Wednesday wrote that most of these budgets have been earmarked for strategic and thematic research. This means that researchers cannot choose their own research topic.<\/p>\n

The KNAW warns that this has an impact on academic freedom; a concept that implies that researchers have the freedom to conduct research, share their findings and teach without interference or penalty.<\/p>\n

It is essential that researchers can conduct unfettered research that stems from curiosity. The committee members stress that the government and institutions must therefore ensure that sufficient funding and scope is made available for this. At the beginning of last year, another KNAW committee also concluded<\/a> that the \u2018balance\u2019 in academic research has been completely lost.<\/p>\n

Tensions<\/h2>

Thematic research is not always a bad thing, but there are tensions \u201cbetween academic freedom on the one hand and the social responsibility of science on the other\u201d. There are also other fields of tension. For example, the fact that companies and other third parties often collaborate in strategic research. This could include collaboration with oil companies or pharmacists, for instance.<\/p>\n

The authors of the report warn that research should not become too dependent on these partnerships. They not only fear an unwanted impact on the research itself, \u201cbut also on the scientific research agenda or the curriculum\u201d.<\/p>\n

Restriction<\/h2>\n\t
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Lees meer<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t