Stay informed of the activities of the Academy, the Society of Arts and The Young Academy through our newsletter. Register here.
Stay informed of the activities of the Academy, the Society of Arts and The Young Academy through our newsletter. Register here.
In the period ahead, last week's election results will be transformed into a new cabinet and new policies, including for science. Dutch science has a strong position internationally. Maintaining and reinforcing that strong position is not something to be taken for granted. For the prosperity and well-being of our country, it is vital to nurture it. That can be done by investing in the full breadth of science and safeguarding its open, inclusive, and international character. We also call upon the next Dutch government to continue to make use of the latest scientific insights to tackle the major challenges that we face today. The Academy stands ready to continue to play a connecting role in that regard.
Read morePhysicist Shlomo Havlin, world renowned as an expert on phase transitions and statistical physics, has won the 2023 Bakhuis Roozeboom Medal. He receives the medal for his ground-breaking theoretical contributions to a range of topics related to phases and phase transitions; a field dedicated to how matter can behave in different states.
Read morePetra de Jongh (Utrecht University) will receive the 2023 Gilles Holst Medal. The jury praised her interdisciplinary approach, her tireless pursuit of knowledge, and the industrial applications resulting from her research on the role of nanomaterials. These include practical, circular solutions for a sustainable energy transition and the development of a new generation of batteries.
Read moreTwelve young researchers – three from each of the Academy’s science domains – will be receiving a KNAW Early Career Award in 2024. The prize, awarded annually for outstanding achievement, consists of a sum of EUR 15,000 and a unique work of art. The KNAW Early Career Award will be presented this year for the fifth time.
Read moreDutch science has a strong position internationally. That expresses itself in a high level of prosperity and well-being. But maintaining and reinforcing that strong position for future generations is not something to be taken for granted. For that, stable investment, as deployed in recent years, remains crucial. We call on politicians to commit to a strong science system that is ready to meet the future. The countries around us invest heavily in science. The Netherlands must also continue to do so. The Royal Academy and The Young Academy therefore call on the next government to focus on a number of crucial points:
Read moreNeuroscientist Christiaan Levelt will become the new director of the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), starting 1 January 2024. Levelt is currently a group leader at the institute, where he investigates how the brain learns and processes information. He is also a professor at VU Amsterdam. Christiaan Levelt succeeds Pieter Roelfsema, who has led the institute since 2007 and will remain associated with it as a group leader.
Read moreMunicipalities do not know enough about the monuments and statues in their public spaces, and their historical awareness is insufficient.
Read moreThe caretaker Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Robbert Dijkgraaf, is leading an impressive delegation of 21 prominent Dutch educational and knowledge organisations on a knowledge mission to South Africa from 15 to 18 October. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) is one of the organisations. The mission marks a significant step in strengthening relations between the Netherlands and South Africa, with a particular emphasis on education and research.
Read moreThe systematic screening of large groups of researchers coming to our country – as currently proposed by the Dutch government – is too imprecise and virtually impossible to implement.
Read moreThe KNAW Academy has appointed three ad interim Board of Management members with effect from 10 October 2023. They are Drs Zakia Guernina as director general a.i., Em Prof Dr Pieter Hooimeijer as deputy director of research policy a.i. and Dr Gerard Nijsten as deputy director of operations a.i.
Read moreThe French climatologist Sandrine Bony investigates the role of clouds in the climate system, and specifically in climate change. For her pioneering work in this field, the Academy is awarding her this year's Buys Ballot Medal for meteorology, in particular climate change.
Read moreThree researchers active in the medical sciences are to receive funding from the KNAW Van Walree Fund to pursue innovative activities that support sustainable, peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing. The three researchers are Joyce Browne (Utrecht University Medical Centre), Malon Van den Hof (Amsterdam University Medical Centre/Statistics Netherlands) and Veerle Heesters (Leiden University Medical Centre), who will each receive up to EUR 10,000 in funding.
Read moreDamage to the human heart, for example due to a heart attack, is not repaired and is therefore permanent. The regenerative capacity of heart muscle cells is lost soon after birth, when these cells transition to their adult form. Researchers from the Van Rooij group have identified ARID1A as an important protein in regulating this transition.
Read moreWilma de Koning will be leaving as Director General at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. She will become the new vice-president of the Tilburg University Executive Board as of 15 November 2023, succeeding Paulina Snijders.
Read moreFrom 25 June - 30 June 2023, over six hundred young scientists from more than eighty countries and nearly forty Nobel laureates gathered in Lindau, Germany, for knowledge exchange and inspiration.
Read moreConsumers shouldn’t be the only ones responsible for the shift to sustainable food consumption, Academies advise European Commission. A group of renowned scientists nominated by European academies through the European Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism, have advised Commissioners on how to transform European food consumption to become healthier and more sustainable.
Read moreToday, June 15, is 'Be Open About Animal Research Day 2023'. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) is pleased to announce its first participation in the annual 'Be Open About Animal Research Day'.
Read moreIf climate change, biodiversity loss and other environmental changes continue unabated, billions of people will face serious health risks by the end of this century resulting from heat stress, flooding, food shortages, infectious diseases, migration and conflicts. Research examining the connection between such environmental changes and human health (the field of study known as Planetary Health) is still in its infancy. In a report published today, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) reviews existing scientific knowledge in this area and offers a list of questions for researchers to address.
Read morePatients with MS show structural abnormalities in their white matter even before MS inflammation develops. This is the conclusion of a new study by the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN) in Amsterdam and the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen (MPI). Could this finding be a target for a new treatment to prevent MS inflammation?
Read more"Natural gas is no cleaner than other fossil fuels, and using it instead of coal or oil involves the risk of little or no reduction in the effects of greenhouse gases." That is the conclusion of the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC) in its new report on "The Future of Gas".
Read moreMolecular cell biologist Geert Kops will become the new director of the Academy's Hubrecht Institute as of 1 September 2023.
Read moreResearchers from the Hubrecht Institute and UMC Utrecht have developed a biobank with organoids derived from patients with head and neck cancer (HNC). They used this biobank to validate known HNC biomarkers and found that treatment responses in the organoids matched those seen in patients.
Read moreThe Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has selected 18 new members. The approximately 600 members of the Academy are leading scientists and scholars from all disciplines. Membership is for life. The new members will be installed on Monday 30 October.
Read moreCarla Hollak, Professor of Metabolic Diseases, in particular hereditary metabolic diseases, at the University of Amsterdam and Amsterdam UMC, will receive the KNAW Academy Medal on 30 May. Hollak is a leading figure in the field of socially engaged medicine and an inspiration for a new generation of physicians. She is also a driving force behind the debate around the accessibility and affordability of medicines. The Academy awards the Medal every two years to an individual who has made a special contribution to Dutch science.
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