Wageningen Research Funding
Wageningen Research, part of WUR, is a public research institute. Wageningen Research aims to solve societal issues, support the government and develop and disseminate knowledge to reinforce the Netherlands’ innovation power and competitiveness.
Wageningen Research (WR) is made up of nine research institutes for contract research. WR competes with other knowledge institutes to acquire commissions. Its main client is the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (Dutch acronym LNV), but WR also conducts research for other administrations, businesses and civic organisations.
WR is a member of the TO2-federation of organisations that engage in applied research. This federation includes such parties as TNO, Deltares, Marin and the Netherlands Aerospace Centre (Dutch acronym NLR).
Where does the funding for WR research come from?
Wageningen Research achieved a turnover of 355 million euros in 2020, distributed over the following categories:
- A) Governments: 200 million
- B) Contract research for governments: 45 million
- C) Business sector: 60 million
- D) Sales and lease: 49 million
Wageningen Research’s turnover shows an increase since 2016, mainly as a result of an increase in commissions from the ministry of LNV. Income generated from LNV research assignments increased from 120 million in 2017 to 154 million in 2020. During this period, income from other sources, such as the business sector, remained stable. Private financiers, ordinarily good for approximately 20%, dropped to 17% in 2020 as a result of the increase in public funding through the ministry of LNV.
- Line-item A, governments, covers programme research for public institutes. The ministry of LNV is the greatest financier by far, contributing 154 million euros. Other financiers in this category include the EU (19 million), public funds (11 million), NVWA (partner of Wageningen Food Safety Research) (13 million) and NWO (3 million).
- Line-item B, contract research governments, includes short or incidental research for public organisations. Here, too, the ministry of LNV is the largest contributor.
- Approximately half of the turnover in line-item C, the business sector, is generated by large corporations and half by medium and small businesses.
- Line-item D, sales and lease, includes the sales of wind-turbine energy, sale of real estate, and lease of equipment.
