Mission and strategy

The FOM Foundation's mission is: 'the advancement of fundamental physics research within the Netherlands, including research inspired by possible applications, and research that serves the public interest or that of higher education'. FOM covers the entire spectrum of fundamental research from curiosity-driven to application-inspired, and potential applications yield valuable links with industry.

FOM has elaborated on its central task to include the following:

• increasing the quality of academic research;
• initiating and stimulating new scientific developments;
• bringing about national co-ordination (formation of networks);
• stimulating transfer of knowledge to other sectors;
• encouraging international participation;
• acting as a national focal point for organizations and researchers abroad;
• operating facilities and services;
• training PhD students and technicians;
• informing the public about its research.

About 80 percent of FOM-supported research is carried out in programmes which are of fixed duration and budget. The remaining 20 percent consists of new projects which are either too immature or unsuitable to be integrated in programmes.