Hackers gained access to the servers of the Dutch research council NWO, halting grant applications for the time being, the council said on Sunday.

The institute’s e-mail addresses and software were compromised and can no longer be used, the agency said in a statement. The grant processing application is dealt with by an external server and ‘does not seem to be infected’, the NOW said, but that server too has been closed down to users.

The NWO expects to need ‘a couple of weeks’ to find out how and when the grant application process can be started up again. It will also investigate how the hack could have happened and to what end.

The government-funded NWO spends around €1bn a year on Dutch research projects.