Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)

As the forum, conscience, and voice of the arts and sciences in the Netherlands, the Academy promotes the quality of scientific and scholarly work and strives to ensure that Dutch scholars and scientists make the best possible contribution to the cultural, social, and economic development of Dutch society.

LOWI
National Board for Scientific Integrity

NARCIS
The gateway to Dutch scientific information

Academy Professorships 2009
Academy appoints four top-level professors

Young scientists
The Young Academy now has eighty members

Sustainable science
The Academy's strategic plan for the period 2007-2010

Research foresight
Shaping the thinking about scientific developments

KNAW
P.O. Box 19121
1000 GC Amsterdam
tel. +31 (0)20-5510700, fax +31 (0)20-6204941
knaw@bureau.knaw.nl

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences names ten new Young Academy members
Ten new members will soon join the Young Academy. They are researchers working in a variety of disciplines who have been selected for their scientific achievements and received their doctorates less than ten years ago. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences set up the Young Academy in 2005 in order to foster communication between young researchers working in different disciplines. The Young Academy is an independent organisation within the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). It organises interdisciplinary conferences, expresses opinions on various social and political issues, and works to generate public enthusiasm for science.

First KNAW Merian Prize awarded to psychologist Naomi Ellemers
The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has awarded the first KNAW Merian Prize for women in science to Prof. Naomi Ellemers. Ellemers, professor of Social Psychology of Organisations at Leiden University, received the prize for her outstanding research and her active role in promoting equal opportunities for women in science. The prize, made possible by the SNS REAAL Fund, consists of a sum of EUR 50,000 and a specially designed ornament. The prize will be presented on Tuesday 26 January 2010 at the Trippenhuis Building in Amsterdam.

Heineken Prize laureates Blackburn & Szostak are awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine
On 5 October, it was announced that the Nobel Prize for Medicine 2009 had been awarded to Heineken Prize laureates Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak. They received the prize, together with Carol Greider, for their discoveries about the way in which chromosomes duplicate during cell division and how they are protected by the telomerase enzyme.

Top 60 Young Scientists participate in the Summer Davos
From 10-12 September 2009, 60 Young Scientists from around the world participated in the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2009.

European consortium to measure impact of research on society
Measuring the scientific quality of research is common practice, but the question how to measure the impact of research on society is still largely unanswered. The reverse question is no less relevant: how does society impact science? A European consortium of knowledge/academic institutes called SIAMPI has received a EUR 800,000 grant from the European Commission to develop assessment methods to answer these questions. This effort, which is expected to take two years, is envisaged to produce a ready-to-use set of indicators to measure the (productive) interaction between science and society.