New centres of gravity, a new structure
Over the past 50 years, ECN has also geared its structure towards the new challenges. Until the early eighties, ECN had been rewarded for the work being done (input financed) rather than the final results produced (output financed). This was about to change. The Government wanted to see more results from the funding and was no longer willing to contribute more than a small part of the research budget. ECN was instructed to seek funding from sources other than the Dutch state by means of research projects under contract. In a period of some 20 years, the proportion of this ‘third-party financing’ grew from 10% to 60%.
Another structural change took place in 1990 with in the establishment of business units. Mr Harry van den Kroonenberg had been appointed as director in 1989 and soon managed to put his stamp on the organisation within the first few months. He concluded that the organisation was not in step with the more commercial character needed to see the contract research through to the end. Business units were subsequently established to encourage a professional approach to the research activities; the units were paid according to their financial results and were therefore required to give greater account of customer wishes and project costs and returns.
Later, in the late 1990s, it emerged that the business unit structure also had its disadvantages when it came to research coherence and efficacy. ECN’s activities were once again firmly aligned with government policy and greater emphasis was placed on the extent to which projects contributed to policy objectives. These objectives were also clearly defined. ECN had to shape the transition to sustainable energy system on the one hand and play a role in the knowledge economy on the other.
This role was later underlined by the Government again during a large-scale assessment of major technological institutes in 1999. ECN should, according to the Government, ‘by no means become a market organisation’. The activities must remain related to government policy and ‘all market-oriented activities must this also show a univocal connection to the long-term orientation of the institution’. But that did not mean turning back the clock, as ECN also had to continue focusing on the market and developing products of relevance to the Dutch economy.
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