This is evident from the National Budget for the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Direct government funding for the university, which was 169.3 million euros last year, will rise to 173.5 million euros this year an increase of two percent plus compensation for inflation. The funding will rise by two percent a year every year until it reaches more than 180 million euros in 2017. Then the growth will tail off.
There are no surprises in the National Budget for DLO either. The available budget for statutory research tasks and Knowledge Base research will fall from 77.3 million in 2014 to 76.1 million this year, and then continue to decline to reach just over 65 million in 2018. The total DLO budget is bigger than that. There is also funding for DLO through the top sectors, but that income is fi xed. All in all, Wageningen UR is now facing the tail end of the cutbacks announced by Mark Rutte’s Cabinet after the banking crisis in 2008.