Laan van Nieuw Oost Indië 300 2593 CE Den Haag
Tel	:	070 - 344 06 40
Fax	:	070 - 385 09 71
Email	:	nwo@nwo.nl
Web	:	www.nwo.nl

Headquartered in The Hague, NWO, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, promotes scientific research at Dutch universities and research institutes and seeks to raise the quality of that research. Innovation is a key element in this endeavour.

NWO also promotes the dissemination and use of research results achieved wholly or partly with NWO support. NWO pursues an active information policy aimed both at researchers and at the media, politicians and the public at large.

To help it achieve these aims NWO receives funding from the Dutch government. Most of this funding comes from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, though other ministries also contribute. NWO targets all fields of research activity pursued in the Netherlands, from physics to theology and from information technology to research on ethnic minorities. 

NWO is committed to ensuring that the level of the research carried out in the Netherlands is and remains among the highest in the world. Good scientific research is one of the key factors in the economy of a highly developed country such as the Netherlands. At the same time, however, science is to some extent a competitive field; a continuous commitment to improving quality is the only way to achieve top-class research. NWO research funding is allocated through a stringent selection process based on the quality of the research proposals submitted each year, as well as through the provision of support to individual researchers. NWO also responds to promising trends and to new, often multidisciplinary developments in research, for example through the introduction of Themes.

By investing in scientific apparatus, NWO helps to create and maintain a smoothly functioning national research infrastructure.

NWO supports broad scientific cooperation at international and, in particular, European level. NWO works closely with sister organisations in other countries and collaborates in programmes to facilitate the use of expensive apparatus and facilities by researchers in Europe, where possible adopting a coordinating role. NWO is an active member of the European Science Foundation 

NWO, which was originally founded as the Netherlands organisation for the Advancement of Pure Research (ZWO), was established by Act of Parliament (in Dutch) 53 years ago. The organisation comprises policy departments for all main disciplines, interdisciplinary Themes and programmes, as well as for major investments, and also includes a number of renowned research institutes.