Inventory Space Research in the Netherlands

Commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), Dialogic has mapped the space research activities in the Netherlands. For this inventory, information on 56 research groups has been collected that are actively involved in space research to varying degrees. An extensive bibliometric analysis and a series of interviews were conducted. Some key findings include:

1. The Netherlands is home to over 50 research groups in the field of space research. This indicates that space research is widely embedded in scientific research. There are fourteen research groups with over 20 full-time equivalents (FTE) working on space research. These 14 groups collectively account for around 850 FTE. In total, approximately 1000 FTE are distributed among 39 research groups that contributed to the evaluation. Eleven of these are classified as specialized research groups/institutes focusing exclusively or significantly on space research, with 50% or more of the researchers working in the field.
2. Space research is increasing in size and becoming more firmly established within the knowledge landscape. Apart from the 11 key players, there is a large group of around 40 groups/institutes contributing to the availability of space technology and applications, serving as suppliers to space research, or relying on space research.
3. Dutch space research has a significant international scientific impact. Compared to the output of the top 20 countries in recent years (2014-2019), the Netherlands has published relatively extensively in Astronomy/Astrophysics (1^st place), Earth Observation (3^rd place), and Microweight (6^th place). Earth Observation has become a second broad Dutch scientific strength within space research alongside Astronomy/Astrophysics. On average, Dutch space research (broad definition) has a high citation impact (around 5^th globally) relative to the output (around 15^th globally). The highest citation impact is in the major themes of Astronomy/Astrophysics and Earth Observation.
4. The 'heatmaps', created based on the bibliometric analysis for each theme, provide a good indication of whether research in that theme is concentrated among a few players or more widely spread. The level of dispersion varies not only across the eight themes but also within the individual themesat the subtheme level (or so-called topic clusters). The heatmaps could be a useful tool to assess where research collaboration, if not already in place, could be further strengthened.

This study is important for decision-making regarding the stimulation of space research (national, European), potential prioritization within space research, and as an initial step in preparation for the ministerial conference of the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2022. Thisresearch was presented to the Dutch House of Representatives on 2nd June (seeLetter to Parliament). The results of the study are summarised in aninfographic.