Netherlands eScience Center

Founded in 2012 as an independent foundation by NWO and SURF, the Netherlands eScience Center is the national centre with the digital skills to create innovative software solutions in academic research. 

We award research projects based on calls for proposals, and we train researchers in the use of research software. Our contribution is primarily in-kind. We offer our expertise in the form of research software engineers (RSEs), the technology specialists with expert digital skills who work with us at the Center. 

We exist because digitalization has fundamentally changed academic research. Today’s data collection, data management and data analyses are all driven by powerful software. 

And research institutes are investigating more complex questions than ever. From climate change and sustainable cities to aging populations and more, research in almost any discipline is impossible without software. 

This is where the digital tools and methods and skills and practices of eScience come in. 

And where a publicly funded, multidisciplinary research organization like the Netherlands eScience Center plays an important role. 

We get excited about enabling digitally-enhanced research. We want to help change the way research communities achieve their ambitions. It’s an honour to serve the academic community, and contribute to continued excellence in academic research. And we’re especially proud of our role keeping the Netherlands at the forefront of cutting-edge international research.

Bringing together knowledge, people and institutions, the eScience Center builds and applies software to enhance the use of computing and digital technologies in academic research. 

Our vision is a thriving research community where researchers in all disciplines can make use of advanced software, computing and digital technologies, keeping the Netherlands at the forefront of research. 

Our mission is to empower researchers through innovative software. To carry it out, we work in two ways: by collaboratively designing sustainable software, and building digital skills and expertise. 

Ultimately our relationship to the academic world is one of mutual benefit; we share the digital skills and knowledge needed to develop and apply research software, and gain insight into the needs of research communities in doing so.