Research and innovation policy is incorporated in the document of the Ministry of Economics, Agriculture and Innovation entitled To the top: Towards a new enterprise policy, published in 2011. A special report Quality in diversity: Strategic Agenda Higher Education, Research and Science was published in July 2011. These documents provide the foundation for the Dutch research and innovation policy. Nine top sectors are identified for research and innovation:
Transport research greatly contributes to transport policy in the Netherlands. A number of strategy and policy documents provide the foundation for the transport policy and research:
Thematic White Papers are regularly issued which provide guidelines for the preparation of national legislation and regulations on transport.
The organisations in research and innovation system and its governance are the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science responsible for higher education, science and basic research and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, responsible for application-oriented research and innovation.
The governance system includes several advisory bodies involved in policy analysis and evaluation:
Policy is implemented by four intermediary organisations:
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment is responsible for developing transport policy. This responsibility is shared by several Ministerial departments:
The key themes for the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment are knowledge, innovation and strategy and are developed in specific Directorates.
Different sources are available to fund transport research including public funds, dedicated transport research programmes, and international and EU programmes.
Organisations responsible for institutional framework and funding:
There are several thematic programmes, which are funding research on transport related topics. For more detailed descriptions, please follow the links below.