The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an

organization An organization or organisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences) is an legal entity, entity—such as ...

dedicated to the advancement of

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. The academy is housed in the

Trippenhuis The Trippenhuis is a neoclassical canal mansion in the centre of Amsterdam. It was built in 1660–1662 for the wealthy Amsterdam weapons traders Louis and Hendrick Trip. Many references to weaponry can be seen on its facade. Since 1887 it has be ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

. In addition to various advisory and administrative functions it operates a number of research institutes and awards many prizes, including the

Lorentz Medal Lorentz Medal is a distinction awarded every four years by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. It was established in 1925 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the doctorate of Hendrik Lorentz. The medal is given for imp ...

in theoretical physics, the

Dr Hendrik Muller Prize The Dr Hendrik Muller Prize for Behavioural and Social Sciences is awarded every other year by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences to a researcher or group of researchers who has made a significant or valuable contribution to the beh ...

for Behavioural and Social Science and the

Heineken Prize The Heineken Prizes for Arts and Sciences consist of 11 awards biannually bestowed by Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. The prizes are named in honor of Henry Pierre Heineken, son of founder Gerard Adriaan Heineken, Alfred Heinek ...

Main functions

The academy advises the Dutch government on scientific matters. While its advice often pertains to genuine scientific concerns, it also counsels the government on such topics as policy on careers for researchers or the Netherlands' contribution to major international projects. The academy offers solicited and unsolicited advice to parliament, ministries, universities and research institutes, funding agencies and international organizations. * Advising the government on matters related to scientific research * Providing a forum for the scientific world and promoting international scientific cooperation * Acting as an umbrella organization for the institutes primarily engaged in basic and strategic scientific research and disseminating information

Members and organization

The members are appointed for life by

co-optation Co-option, also known as co-optation and sometimes spelt cooption or cooptation, is a term with three common meanings. It may refer to: 1) The process of adding members to an elite group at the discretion of members of the body, usually to manag ...

. Nominations for candidate membership by persons or organizations outside the academy are accepted. The acceptance criterion is delivered scientific achievements. Academy membership is therefore regarded as a great honor, and prestigious. Besides regular members, there are foreign members and corresponding members. Since a new membership system was introduced in 2011 there will be no new corresponding members. Each year a maximum of sixteen members are appointed to the academy. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences has long embraced the entire field of learning. The Royal Academy comprises two departments, consisting of around 500 members: * Science (mathematics, physics,

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

, life sciences, and engineering sciences) * Humanities and Social Sciences (humanities, law, behavioural sciences and social sciences) Both departments have their own board. The departments, in turn, are divided into sections. The highest organ in the academy is the general meeting of members, the united meeting of both departments. The president was

Frits van Oostrom Frits van Oostrom (born 15 May 1953 in Utrecht, Netherlands) is university professor for the Humanities at Utrecht University. In 1999 he was a visiting professor at Harvard for the Erasmus Chair. From September 2004 to June 2005, he was a fellow ...

until 1 May 2008, after which he was succeeded by

Robbert Dijkgraaf Robertus Henricus "Robbert" Dijkgraaf, (; born 24 January 1960) is a Dutch theoretical physicist, mathematician and string theorist and former politician. He served as the Minister of Education, Culture and Science in the Netherlands from 2 ...

. Both van Oostrom in his leaving address and Dijkgraaf in his inaugural address have voiced their worries about the low level of funding in science in the Netherlands compared to almost all other western countries. A list of presidents of the academy is as follows: * 1973–1978

Hendrik Casimir Hendrik Brugt Gerhard Casimir (15 July 1909 – 4 May 2000) was a Dutch physicist who made significant contributions to the field of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics. He is best known for his work on the Casimir effect, which descr ...

* 1978–1981 Samuel Dresden * 1981–1984

André Donner Andreas Matthias Donner (15 June 1918 in Rotterdam – 24 August 1992 in Amersfoort) was a Dutch judge and the second President of the European Court of Justice, a position which he served between 1958 and 1964. Early life Donner stems from ...

* 1984–1990

David de Wied David de Wied (12 January 1925 – 21 February 2004, aged 79) was a Dutch professor of pharmacology at the University of Utrecht. Due to the necessity of hiding as a Jew during the Second World War, De Wied only started in 1947 studying medicine ...

* 1990–1996 Pieter Drenth * 1996–1999 Pieter Zandbergen * 1999–2002 Robert S. Reneman * 2002–2005

Willem Levelt Willem Johannes Maria (Pim) Levelt (born 17 May 1938) is a Dutch psycholinguist. He is a researcher of human language acquisition and speech production. He developed a comprehensive theory of the cognitive processes involved in the act of spe ...

* 2005–2008

* 2008–2012

* 2012–2015

Hans Clevers Johannes (Hans) Carolus Clevers (born 27 March 1957) is a Dutch Molecular genetics, molecular geneticist, Cell biology, cell biologist and stem cell researcher. He became the Head of Pharma, Research and Early Development, and a member of the C ...

* 2015–2018

José van Dijck Johanna Francisca Theodora Maria "José" van Dijck (born 15 November 1960, in Boxtel) is a new media author and a distinguished university professor in media and digital society at Utrecht University since 2017. From 2001 to 2016 she was a profe ...

* 2018–2020

Wim van Saarloos Wim van Saarloos is a Dutch physicist, academic and researcher. He is a Professor of Theoretical Physics at Leiden University (emeritus since July 2021). Van Saarloos has written over 280 papers and has been cited over 12000 times. His research i ...

* 2020–2022

Ineke Sluiter Ineke Sluiter (born 13 November 1959) is a Dutch classicist and professor of Greek language and literature at Leiden University since 1998. Her research focuses on language, literature, and public discourse in classical antiquity. She was a winne ...

* 2022–present

Marileen Dogterom Marileen Dogterom (born 20 November 1967, in Utrecht) is a Dutch biophysicist and professor at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at Delft University of Technology. She published in Science, Cell, and Nature and is notable for her research of th ...

History

During the

Kingdom of Holland The Kingdom of Holland ( (contemporary), (modern); ) was the successor state of the Batavian Republic. It was created by Napoleon Bonaparte in March 1806 in order to strengthen control over the Netherlands by replacing the republican governmen ...

, it was founded as the ''Koninklijk Instituut van Wetenschappen, Letterkunde en Schoone Kunsten'' (Royal Institute of Sciences, Literature and Fine Arts) by

Lodewijk Napoleon Louis Bonaparte (born Luigi Buonaparte; 2 September 1778 – 25 July 1846) was a younger brother of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. He was a monarch in his own right from 1806 to 1810, ruling over the Kingdom of Holland (a French client sta ...

on May 4, 1808. In 1816, after the occupation had ended, it was renamed to ''Koninklijk-Nederlandsch Instituut van Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schoone Kunsten''. In 1851, it was disbanded and re-established as the ''Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen'' and in 1938 obtained its present name. Since 1812, the academy has resided in the ''Trippenhuis'' in Amsterdam. The institute was awarded the

Gouden Ganzenveer The Gouden Ganzenveer ("Golden goose quill") is a Dutch cultural award initiated in 1955, given annually to a person or organization of great significance to the written and printed word. Recipients are selected by an academy of people from the cul ...

in 1955.

Research institutes

The following

research institute A research institute, research centre, or research organization is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often implies natural ...

s are associated with the KNAW: *

Data Archiving and Networked Services Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous values that convey information, describing the quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted formally ...

(since 2005) *

Fryske Akademy The Fryske Akademy (; Frisian for ''Frisian Academy''), founded in 1938, is the scientific centre for research and education concerning Friesland and its people, language and culture, this in its broadest sense. The institution is based in the ...

(since 1990, founded in 1938) * (''research institute for developmental biology and stem cells in the Netherlands'') (since 1917) *

Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands The Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands was formed on January 1, 2011, through a merger of the Institute of Dutch History (, ING) a research institute of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, and the Huygens Ins ...

(since 1992) *

International Institute of Social History International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

(since 1979, founded in 1935) *

Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies The KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (, abbreviated as KITLV) at Leiden was founded in 1851. Its objective is the advancement of the study of the anthropology, linguistics, social sciences, and history o ...

(since 2001, founded in 1851) *

Meertens Instituut The Meertens Institute (Dutch ''Meertens Instituut'') in Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of ...

(since 1952) * Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN) (established in 2005 as a merger of the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research (NIH, established in 1909) and the Netherlands Ophthalmic Research Institute (IOI, established in 1988)) *

Netherlands Institute of Ecology , informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands consists of twelve provinces; it ...

(Nederlands Instituut voor Ecologie) (NIOO-KNAW) (since 1992) *

NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies The NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies ( Dutch: ''NIOD Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust- en Genocidestudies'') is an organisation in the Netherlands which maintains archives and carries out historical studies into the Second ...

(since 1999, founded in 1945) *

Nederlands Instituut voor Wetenschappelijke Informatiediensten Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

(1997–2005) *

Nederlands Interdisciplinair Demografisch Instituut Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

(since 2003) *

Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) in Amsterdam, Netherlands, is an independent research institute in the field of the humanities and social and behavioural sciences founded in 1970. The insti ...

(since 1988) *

Rathenau Instituut The Rathenau Institute () is an organisation in the Netherlands for technology assessment. It is a member of the European Parliamentary Technology Assessment. The Institute was formed in 1986 as the Netherlands Organisation for Technology Asse ...

(since 1994, previously NOTA (1987-1994)) *

Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute The ''Westerdijk Institute'', or Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, is part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. The institute was renamed on 10 February 2017, after Johanna Westerdijk, the first female professor in the ...

(since 1904)

Young Academy

De Jonge Akademie (The Young Academy) is a society of younger science researchers, founded in 2005 as part of the KNAW. Ten members are elected each year for a term of five years; members are scientists between 25 and 45 years old and are selected for a record of excellence in their research. It was modelled after the similar

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Junge Akademie and both of these academies in turn were used as models for the

Global Young Academy The Global Young Academy (GYA) is an international society of young scientists, aiming to give a voice to young scientists across the globe.... Membership strength is capped at 200, and the membership tenure is 5 years. Organization and member ...

Society of Arts

The Society of Arts (Akademie van Kunsten) is a society of prominent artists from various disciplines, including architecture, visual arts, dance, film, photography, literature, music and performing arts. Its aim is to be the place "for debate about the value of art in society and about the relationship between art and science".The Society of Arts was established by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014. Both are seated in the 17th century Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. At the start the Society of Arts had 19 members. Each year the number of members increases with 6 new members who are offered a membership for life. In 2022 the Society of Arts has 76 members. Members of the Society of Arts are elected by nomination. Anyone can nominate leading artists from all disciplines who have distinguished themselves on the basis of demonstrable artistic achievements.

References

External links

*
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
official website
Young Academy (De Jonge Akademie)
official website
Society of Arts (Akademie van Kunsten)
official website
Netherlands Institute of Ecology (Nederlands Instituut voor Ecologie) (NIOO-KNAW)
official website {{Authority control 1808 establishments in the Netherlands Learned societies of the Netherlands

Organisations based in Amsterdam Academy of Arts and Sciences Scientific organisations based in the Netherlands Scientific organizations established in 1808 Members of the International Council for Science Members of the International Science Council Louis Bonaparte