Ministry of Defence likes the idea of collaborating with universities

Last year, the Advisory Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (AWTI) advised higher education and research to collaborate with the military more often. In their view, students, teachers and researchers could make the Netherlands safer thanks to their knowledge. 

Winning battle
The Minister of Defence, Ruben Brekelmans, is excited about the idea. In a letter to the House of Representatives, he stated that the army "can't wait" to work together with universities as it must "continuously build knowledge, learn and innovate" to stay one step ahead of enemies and "win the fight".

Brekelmans wants the army to be more open to new ideas from the knowledge sector, echoing AWTI's advice. This could be done by offering more internships or forming its own circle of professors. Brekelmans also wants to spend more money on defence research. Those funds would not only be meant for technology but also for "people and organisation."

Next spring, he will present a document detailing what the cooperation with universities and universities of applied sciences could look like. Brekelmans hopes universities of applied sciences will be able to do "action-oriented and operationally relevant research." At the university level, he wants to have a better overview of research that is of military interest.

Ties
The military's outstretched hand comes at a difficult time for some scientists. In recent years, there have been many demonstrations in the Netherlands against collaborations with Israeli universities, which are mainly criticised for their close ties with the military.

In November, Erasmus Magazine, from Rotterdam University, asked its readers to react to AWTI's advice. Some called collaborations with the army "hypocritical" citing concerns about Israel, while others called on researchers to help defend the "Western values that are so important to be able to do our job."

Knowledge security
Brekelmans offered another argument: money. The Ministry of Defence has recently been well in the doldrums, which is why the minister wants to spend a larger part of its budget on research. But he can't say exactly how much before the spring. 

However, the minister warns that universities and universities of applied sciences should continue to work on securing their knowledge in the meantime. Scientists are used to making their work public, while the military would not want innovative ideas to leak out to adversaries.

This also applies to knowledge that is not military but can be deployed that way (dual use). Brekelmans is already talking with the higher education sector about a standard agreement so that the Ministry of Defence can open itself up to researchers without fear of knowledge falling into the wrong hands.