Advisory council calls for more links between universities and defence
Dutch universities should do more defence research. By doing so, they can absorb some of the severe budget cuts, says Jos Benschop of the Advisory Council for Science, Technology and Innovation.
Knowledge offensive for defence is the name of the new report (in Dutch) by the Advisory Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (AWTI), the council of which present minister Eppo Bruins of Education & Science was chairman until recently.
The idea of the report is simple: peace cannot be taken for granted and Dutch defence forces have been cut back for years. On top of that, the global threats are different than before. Dutch defence desperately needs knowledge, research and innovation, the AWTI believes.
In response to the advice, government party New Social Contract wanted to know from Bruins last week what the options are, while GroenLinks-PvdA thought it odd to compensate for the harsh cuts in research in this way.
The government is cutting back heavily on education and research, while investing billions in defence. The AWTI does not mention amounts, but this new focus on defence offers higher education and research an opportunity, thinks AWTI board member Jos Benschop, in daily life executive vice president technology of chip machine manufacturer ASML.
Why are you coming up with an opinion on defence?
“Peace seemed self-evident for years, but the annexation of Crimea and later the full blown invasion of Ukraine have put thinking about security, conflict and war back on the map. On top of that, the nature of conflicts is steadily changing. Previously, when you thought of ‘war’, you mainly thought of tanks and planes, but now we also have to deal with misinformation campaigns, subversion and sabotage. On top of this, increasingly sophisticated weapons are also being developed. The threat is more complex than before.”
And more money is becoming available to the Ministry of Defence.
“The whole playing field is changing. You see defence spending rising across Europe, after first thinking we could sell all the tanks because we didn’t need them anymore anyway. Less and less money was going to our security.”
Long-term budget cuts have caused knowledge and innovation capability to be lost in defence, you write. How long will it take to restore this?
“That is a matter of many years. You tear something down in a fraction of the time it takes to build it up, but it can be done. In our advice, we give an example from the United States. There, they have set up an Office of Naval Research, which has built up an academic network and figures out which innovations are promising.”
Your plea comes just as the government has announced major cuts to education and research. What do you think of that?
“The AWTI says time and again that you have to invest in the broad foundation of science in the Netherlands, because everything builds on that. But yes, we Dutch people elect parliament and that parliament leads to this government and its cuts in education and research.”
It is precisely your former president Eppo Bruins who has to make these cuts. Don’t you find that strange?
“That's not too bad. You can say: how on earth can he be responsible for these cuts? But mostly I think: nice to have someone sitting there trying to make the best of it.”
You heard no swearing at the drinks?
“No, absolutely not.”
Universities probably have little appetite for thinking about defence now that they have to pull out all the stops because of budget cuts.
“But it's actually an opportunity. If you see what is being spent in Europe on innovation grants in the field of defence, it will undoubtedly also have repercussions here in the Netherlands. We do not say: ‘You have yet another task here, just when you have to make cuts. No, we say: pay attention, important things are happening in the world and large pots of money are going to defence. Part of that money goes to research and innovation.”
Science wants to be open and international. That is at odds with mostly secret defence research.
“You have fairly strict rules for such research, which at first glance rather clash with, for instance, the ideal of open science. You don’t share defence research with colleagues from all over the world, but it is important. We call for dialogue on such issues. In a way, our advice is very Dutch: we need to polder.”
The report states that knowledge institutions should be prepared “to look with an open eye at what regular scientific research could also be of military interest”. The council lists AI, robotics and the like as examples, but - in view of undermining, misinformation and similar threats - also media and communication studies and language and cultural sciences. “This way of looking at things requires a mental and cultural shift for many.”
Earlier, you wrote about the hot topic of knowledge security. That word hardly appears in this opinion.
“Knowledge security is about the other side of the coin. Some research may have unintended military applications and then you have to be careful about who has access to it.”
It seems to say: if others come here to steal knowledge for military applications, then we ourselves can use that knowledge for that too.
“In the report, we say nothing about this.”
Long-term budget cuts have caused knowledge and innovation capability to be lost in defence, you write. How long will it take to restore this?
“That is a matter of many years. You tear something down in a fraction of the time it takes to build it up, but it can be done. In our advice, we give an example from the United States. There, they have set up an Office of Naval Research, which has built up an academic network and figures out which innovations are promising.”
Your plea comes just as the government has announced major cuts to education and research. What do you think of that?
“The AWTI says time and again that you have to invest in the broad foundation of science in the Netherlands, because everything builds on that. But yes, we Dutch people elect parliament and that parliament leads to this government and its cuts in education and research.”
It is precisely your former president Eppo Bruins who has to make these cuts. Don’t you find that strange?
“That's not too bad. You can say: how on earth can he be responsible for these cuts? But mostly I think: nice to have someone sitting there trying to make the best of it.”
You heard no swearing at the drinks?
“No, absolutely not.”
Universities probably have little appetite for thinking about defence now that they have to pull out all the stops because of budget cuts.
“But it's actually an opportunity. If you see what is being spent in Europe on innovation grants in the field of defence, it will undoubtedly also have repercussions here in the Netherlands. We do not say: ‘You have yet another task here, just when you have to make cuts. No, we say: pay attention, important things are happening in the world and large pots of money are going to defence. Part of that money goes to research and innovation.”
Science wants to be open and international. That is at odds with mostly secret defence research.
“You have fairly strict rules for such research, which at first glance rather clash with, for instance, the ideal of open science. You don’t share defence research with colleagues from all over the world, but it is important. We call for dialogue on such issues. In a way, our advice is very Dutch: we need to polder.”
The report states that knowledge institutions should be prepared “to look with an open eye at what regular scientific research could also be of military interest”. The council lists AI, robotics and the like as examples, but - in view of undermining, misinformation and similar threats - also media and communication studies and language and cultural sciences. “This way of looking at things requires a mental and cultural shift for many.”
Earlier, you wrote about the hot topic of knowledge security. That word hardly appears in this opinion.
“Knowledge security is about the other side of the coin. Some research may have unintended military applications and then you have to be careful about who has access to it.”
It seems to say: if others come here to steal knowledge for military applications, then we ourselves can use that knowledge for that too.
“In the report, we say nothing about this.”
