Scientists who translate their knowledge into products or services for companies or civil-society organisations should qualify more easily for public research funds, junior education minister Sander Dekker said in an interview with the Financieele Dagblad.

The minister hopes his proposals, which will be sent to parliament on Thursday, will reduce the academic focus on ‘the length of the list of publications’ in prominent scientific journals.

‘We have to move away from that perverse incentive,’ Dekker said. ‘Every year 2.5 million scientific articles are produced and that number is growing. Who still reads them? Some scientists divide their research into publishable blocks in order to climb in the rankings. That no longer has anything to do with academic quality and the impact of the research on our welfare and prosperity.’

The minister said scientists who do not go along with the culture of ‘publish or perish’ are seldom rewarded. Setting up a company or consulting patients’ organisations to learn what their needs are, according to the minister, still regarded as ‘child’s play, a hobby’.

‘But seeking to make a difference should be one of the hallmarks of every scientist,’ Dekker said.

Business links

To improve the link between science and business, the government is planning to provide extra incentives for scientists to cooperate with companies and public organisations. In practice, this means that the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), which spends €650m a year, will in future consider a scientist’s track record in the area of valorisation in assessing grant applications.

Dekker has also earmarked €10m for scientists who carry out doctoral research with a company. The grants for these so-called ‘industrial doctorates’ are specifically intended for small and medium-sized firms, since large companies like Shell and Philips already have contacts with the universities.

If the pilot is a success, the scheme may in future be expanded to public institutions, such as local councils, Dekker said.