News item | 14-11-2025 | 10:20
The Ministry of Economic Affairs (EZ) has decided to allocate €105 million to eleven innovative projects from Dutch research facilities. They can lay the foundation for the development of new products, technologies and services. The support will include a new wind tunnel for military and civil aerospace, AI models for weather, climate and water, and a facility to develop larger and more complex drones.
The support comes from the second funding round of the Facilities for Applied Research (FTO) scheme. €290 million was already awarded in the first round (2024). Dutch Applied Research Organizations (TO2) and National Knowledge Institutes can use this support to (further) develop high-quality and future-proof facilities for research.
Minister Vincent Karremans (Economic Affairs): “The level of knowledge and research in the Netherlands is high. But research and development and ultimately valuable innovations do not arise by themselves. These technologies and products are also absolutely necessary for our safety, to prevent dependencies and to be able to earn our money in the future. If we want to remain successful, rock-solid research facilities are the basis for this and that is why we invest in them.”
The eleven awarded projects
The resources will go to a new research aircraft (NLR), the Biospec facility for processes in food and biobased economy (WUR), the Biobased Products Innovation Plant where circular innovations and biorefinery are being worked on. The Drone Facility (NLR) will be expanded to test larger and more complex drones. Naturalis will further automate its monitoring of biodiversity by applying AI. With this support, Deltares will work on an upgrade of its basins where research into water safety, energy and climate adaptation takes place.
MARIN and Deltares both receive support for innovative laboratories. The high-speed wind tunnels for military and civil aerospace at NLR are being updated. RIVM will set up a central sample bank. RCE will improve accessibility to movable and built heritage data.