University of Amsterdam - Research

Research

The University of Amsterdam is one of Europe's largest research universities, with over 7,900 scientific publications in 2010. Every year, the UvA spends about €100 million on research via direct funding. It receives an additional €23 million via indirect funding and about €49 million from commercial partners. Faculty members often receive research prizes and grants, such as those from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). Research is organized into fifteen research priority areas and 28 research institutes within the faculties oversee this research.

The University of Amsterdam has an extensive central University Library (UBA), with over four million volumes. In addition, a number of departments have their own libraries. The Library of the UvA is located in the city center. It contains over four million books, 70,000 manuscripts, 500,000 letters, and 125,000 maps. In the UBA, one can find the special collections of the Department of Rare and Precious Works, the Manuscript and Writing Museum, the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana on Jewish history and culture, and the Department of Documentation on Social Movements. Three reading rooms are available for students to study in quiet. In addition to the main University Library, there are approximately 70 departmental libraries spread throughout the center of Amsterdam. The university's printing arm, the Amsterdam University Press, has a publishing list of over 1,400 titles in both Dutch and English.

In addition to its libraries, the UvA has five museums. These include the Allard Pierson Museum, which houses antiquities from Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, the Near East, and central Italy during the time between 4000 BCE and 500 CE; the University Museum, with collections showing the history of the Uva from 1632 until present; the Museum Vrolik, which houses anatomical, zoological and teratological specimens; The J.A. Dortmond Museum of Script which has exhibits showing the history of writing in the West from 3000 BCE to today; the UvA Computer Museum which houses displays showing how computers of the past worked and how calculations were made before the presence of the electronic computer; the Zoological Museum Amsterdam at the Amsterdam Artis Zoo contains collection of millions of shells, insects, mammals, birds, fishes and other animals used in scientific research.