WRR-Newsletter December 2022

At the end of September, sister organization France Stratégie visited the WRR to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The two-day programme was dedicated to exchanging knowledge on various themes, focusing on the WRR projects Sustainable Health Care, Business and Society, and Society and the Media. In addition, the Council for the Environment and Infrastructure organized a roundtable based on the advisory report Splitting the atom, splitting opinion? Decision-making on nuclear energy based on values. To conclude the visit, France Stratégie gave a lecture on its report Sustainabilities! Coordinate and plan public action.

France Stratégie visits the WRR during anniversary year

Migration patterns in Western European countries have changed fundamentally. Increasing diversity by origin and in length of stay affect social cohesion at the local level and require a novel policy agenda. In its newly published book ‘Migration diversity and social cohesion: reassessing the Dutch policy agenda’, the WRR provides empirical evidence that increasing diversity affects social cohesion and shows policymakers which initiatives work when responding to the increasing diversity in cities, towns and neighbourhoods.

Increasing migration diversity requires a new policy agenda

The media landscape has undergone considerable changes which have raised concerns about, amongst others, disinformation and polarization of the public debate. Considering these changes, which opportunities or threats does the democratic role of the media in society face? The Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) has started a new research project. For more information see the project page

New advisory project: media and democracy

The kick-off meeting for the ‘Building capacity for evidence-informed policymaking in governance and public administration in a post-pandemic Europe’ project took place on 8 November, in Brussels. European societies face complex problems and major societal challenges, such as COVID-19 and climate change. It is therefore crucial that governments are able to base their policies on scientific knowledge. This new EU project aims to increase the involvement of scientists, evaluators and policymakers in each other’s work to improve knowledge sharing, processes and policies.

New EU project launched: ‘Building capacity for evidence-informed policymaking’

• The first Flemish-Dutch Day of Reflection

• ESAF conference Vilnius

• A future-proof Covid policy calls for action based on different scenarios

• Roundtable with the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters

• Podcast about behavioural science and capacity to act