Billions of euros in additional funding will flow to the Ministry of Defence over the coming years, some of it earmarked for knowledge and innovation. The question, however, is where the armed forces will find the knowledge and innovation they need.
Universities of applied sciences said last year that they were ready to step up. Now, Universities of the Netherlands (UNL) has decided to follow suit. Last Monday, State Secretary Derk Boswijk and UNL president Caspar van den Berg signed a letter of intent.
Free world
Van den Berg seems to view the collaboration as a natural step. Research universities are embedded in society and want to help tackle major societal challenges. “Peace, security and resilience are among those challenges”, he says when asked.
He is keen to stress that this extends beyond universities’ technological research endeavours. They also conduct research into the impacts of war, effective decision-making in a crisis and trauma experienced by military personnel after a peacekeeping mission, for example.
Van den Berg believes the collaboration will also help safeguard the research universities’ own future. “We provide education and carry out independent research. We can only do that in a world where peace and freedom prevail.”
Confidentiality
A sensitive aspect of this collaboration – perhaps the most sensitive aspect – is, of course, academic freedom. Open, unrestricted research, preferably with colleagues from around the world, can sometimes clash with the confidentiality requirements the Defence Ministry may impose.
University administrators therefore declined to be hurried into an agreement. They held a series of discussions with people at the Ministry of Defence “to learn to speak each other’s language”, says Van den Berg. “We wanted to understand their needs and explain why universities wanted to work within a clear framework.”
Academic freedom and research integrity are described as non-negotiable principles of the collaboration. The letter states: “Because these principles underpin the strength of science, they are also important to the Ministry of Defence.”
Collaboration well established
The letter comes against the backdrop of longstanding collaboration between research universities and the Ministry of Defence. Letters of intent have even been drawn up with individual universities. Delft University of Technology, for example, signed an LOI in April 2025, almost a year and a half ago. The armed forces even have their own military tech hub on its campus.
Researchers can already apply for Dutch Research Council (NWO) funding for projects that may be of value to the armed forces. The first ten grants have now been awarded: nine to universities of technology and one to the University of Amsterdam.
Even so, Van den Berg believes a joint letter of intent is useful. He believes it will enable discussions about new research to focus on the core issues more quickly.
Few, if any, financial arrangements have been made. Together, the universities and the Ministry have agreed only to follow the universities’ existing approach to calculating costs. Collaboration can therefore take place through research funding body NWO, through direct contract research at the universities themselves, or in partnership with the Netherlands Defence Academy, the armed forces’ military-scientific knowledge and research institute.
Interest in defence field
Universities of applied sciences are also seeking closer ties with the armed forces through their research groups. The Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences signed a framework agreement back in December 2025. Various institutions will soon receive funding for applied defence research through coordinating body SIA (the branch of NWO dedicated to universities of applied sciences).
Interest in the defence field has been driven both by geopolitical developments and by the previous government’s cutbacks in higher education, alongside substantial investment in the Ministry of Defence. Added to that, the armed forces are very keen to gain access to knowledge and innovation.
Students
Students can now also take a military minor. This is offered not only at many universities of applied sciences, but also at various research universities. Students are appointed as paid reservists and learn ‘basic military skills’.
The Dutch Student Union opposes collaboration between universities and the Ministry of Defence, saying it will have a “significant negative impact on academic freedom”. Academic freedom is already under pressure, the union argues, and now the Ministry of Defence’s involvement could add to those concerns.
Not public?
The wording of the letter of intent illustrates the tension facing research universities. It says the letter “will not be made public” without mutual consent, unless disclosure is required by law.
Yet the parties immediately issued a press release and published the letter shortly after signing it. UNL president Van den Berg isn’t entirely sure why the clause is there either. He thinks it’s standard wording used by the Ministry. “There’s not much to it. We agreed in advance that we would make this public.”