Dutch universities team up with government to reduce dependence on American big tech

Dutch universities have joined forces with the central government and IT cooperative Surf to increase the educational institutions’ digital autonomy and break free from American big tech companies. “The realization has sunk in that we must do something about this, and also that we can do something about this,” Alexandra van Huffelen, president of Radboud University and chair of a specially established committee for digital autonomy, told the Financieele Dagblad (FD).

Dutch academics first started raising major concerns about Dutch universities' digital dependency on the United States during Donald Trump’s first term as president in 2019. In the six years since then, the geopolitical situation has only deteriorated. Trump increased his attacks on academic freedom, and the rollout of AI chatbots made everything more precarious, Van Huffelen told the newspaper.

Breaking free from Big Tech is going to be a big job. American tech providers are everywhere, from computers and learning environments to data storage and communication channels. But there are possibilities, Van Huffelen said. “The fact that we are doing this together means that you are in a strong position. Together, we can enforce better contracts. Moreover, we have all kinds of scientists within our walls who are working on this. They can provide solutions or develop ideas.”

The approach consists of multiple steps. First, the higher education institutions will map out what their digital infrastructure looks like and where the greatest vulnerabilities lie. “Utrecht University has created a tool for this,” Van Huffelen said. “The idea is that all universities will use and improve it. A baseline assessment must be conducted.”

Based on those assessments, the committee will make concrete proposals. Protecting research data will be one of the first priorities. “Our researchers are incredibly dependent on all that data, which they have stored digitally somewhere,“ Van Huffelen said. “That is why we in the Netherlands are cooperating in storing American climate data, because researchers there suddenly could no longer access their data.”

The long-term plan is to pave the way for a completely different approach to technology. “We do not want to switch from one large provider to another,” Van Huffelen said. Ideally, universities’ digital systems would consist of various separate modular building blocks purchased from different suppliers.

The universities’ planned move away from Big Tech falls into a broader desire for more digital autonomy in the Netherlands. Parliament has been pushing for this since it became known that an American company may acquire Solvinity, which provides the software DigiD runs on. Several Dutch municipalities have also announced that they want to move away from American tech suppliers.

Van Huffelen, therefore, sees many advantages to the fact that the national government is part of this committee. Collaboration between these different fields can help launch initiatives and increase the Netherlands’ market power.

According to Van Huffelen, everyone in the committee feels the urgency. “This is about the heart of what universities are. About academic freedom, about protecting our data. It is truly a top priority. We must implement a strategy and keep executing it. This is not a one-time-and-done thing.”