The Dutch approach to developing a national science agenda has been genuinely unique, in the way that the Knowledge Coalition invited the general public in April 2015 to submit questions about science. This resulted in 11.700 questions submitted by the general public, academic institutions, the business community and civil society organisations.

Five academic juries were appointed by the Knowledge Coalition to cluster and assess the questions. This was followed by three conferences in June 2015 on ‘science4science’, ‘science4competiveness’ and ‘science4 society’. Their purpose was to bring order to the questions, and to further aggregate the questions where possible, based on these three perspectives.

This process  ultimately led to the 140 overarching scientific questions and 16 example routes, which are presented in the online Dutch National Research Agenda (in Dutch) and the browseable online Dutch National Research Agenda books (in Dutch and English).

A more in-depth look at the process that led to the Agenda can be found in the document From Vision for Science to Dutch National Research Agenda in 365 days.