Strategic Plan for Astronomy in the Netherlands 2011-2020

Abstract

Strategic Plan for Astronomy in the Netherlands 2011 - 2020, written by the Netherlands Committee for Astronomy (NCA), on behalf of the excellence research school in astronomy NOVA, (combining the university astronomy institutes of the universities of Amsterdam, Groningen, Leiden and Nijmegen), the NWO division of Physical Sciences, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy ASTRON and the Netherlands Institute for Space Research SRON. The Strategic plan outlines the scientific priorities for Dutch astronomy in the next decade; the instrumentation effort required to address these priorities, and the connection between astronomical instrumentation and technology development and fundamental technological R&D; the financial contours needed to realise the priorities; and the role of Dutch astronomy in education and outreach. The Strategic Plan also includes a retrospective on the achievements since the last Strategic Plan (2000) and a forward look beyond 2020.