In 2021, the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science allocated €8.5 billion to the education system to support recovery from COVID-19 and the disruptions it caused to education. As part of this recovery package, the ​‘National Education Programme’ schools were allocated €5.8 billion made available for schools at the start of the 2021/2022 school year. The amount allocated to each school was dependent on the number of students at the school, but included a minimum of €700 per pupil for the 2021/2022 school year with a higher contribution made for schools with a higher risk of deprivation and a minimum of €500 per student for the 2022/2023 school year.

The Dutch government developed a menu-card of evidence-based approaches underpinned by the network’s global database to guide schools spending of these funds with the cost, impact and security of evidence explained transparently to schools. The approaches were selected on the basis that they were broad enough to be implemented with consideration of the Dutch context. Schools then worked autonomously in consultation with their boards to allocate funding to approaches on the menu which would target the needs of their students and communities. 

Since then, the Netherlands Initiative for Education Research (NRO) translated and contextualised evidence portal based on the global database for schools and early childhood education.