Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA)

NOVA is the alliance of the astronomical institutes at the universities in The Netherlands: Amsterdam, Groningen, Leiden and Nijmegen. NOVA closely collaborates with the two other research institutes that are active in the field of astronomy in the Netherlands: The space research institute SRON and the radio astronomy institute ASTRON. Collaboration and coordination of all partners in Dutch astronomy takes place within the Astronomy Council (RvdA) and the creation of decadal strategic plans and midterm updates by the RvdA. NOVA astronomers rely heavily on the world-class facilities of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), most notably the VLT telescopes and the ALMA array. A large fraction of the instrument projects that NOVA participates in are targeted at these facilities, including the Extremely Large Telescope that is currently under construction.