VU Amsterdam will be getting a Center for Defence and Resilient Society. Within it, collaboration with the Ministry of Defence will be strengthened, according to the university’s 2026 annual plan. The university student council fears “controversy” surrounding this plan, as emerged during a meeting of the participatory councils with the executive board. After all, the establishment of the new center will be seen as a part of the “militarisation” of society, a USC member warned.
The government is indeed speaking with increasing emphasis about the possibility of a war, for example with Russia. Even the Sinterklaasjournaal, a fictional news programme for children, deals with dismantling bombs and with emergency kits.
But according to executive board chair Margrethe Jonkman, there is nothing new under the sun. “There is already collaboration with Defence”, she said. “The connotation with militarisation is obvious, but this is not about the development of hardcore munitions-like technology. It is about making society resilient and VU Amsterdam is keen to play a role in that, precisely against polarisation and in order to initiate dialogue. Do not expect a large and separate building on campus”, Jonkman said.
It did not become clear in which fields collaboration will take place, but according to a recent message on the VU website it concerns ‘interdisciplinary research and education in psychology, history, philosophy, physiology, political science, engineering, and business administration’ that will be deployed ‘for a resilient, robust, and safe society’.
That there is indeed a change is evident from the fact that the collaboration is being ‘strengthened’ as a ‘temporary impulse to generate income’, as stated in the annual plan. The establishment of the new center and the explicit profiling of the collaboration with Defence are also new, a member of the staff council noted.