Proud of 75 years of history
NEI was established in 1929 as the the Foundation Netherlands Economic Institute with the objective to carry out (applied) economic research. In the beginning, NEI was closely linked to the Erasmus University of Rotterdam and this co-operation was greatly strengthened by Nobel Laureate Professor J. Tinbergen. In the post-war period, NEI developed into an organisation that earned all its revenue from contract work, and its ties with the University were loosened.

The growing internationalisation of NEI's markets required in the nineties a change of strategy and in turn a change in legal form. The organisation was split into a Foundation and a limited liability company called NEI BV, with the Foundation being the holder of shares in the company.

All operational tasks of the former Foundation were handed over to NEI BV, which opted to follow a European internationalisation and diversification strategy to reflect the ongoing enlargement and integration of the European Union. And it also firmly believed that there was a demand, within Europe and beyond, for its independent and sound reseach and consultancy, NEI sought, and found, partners to implement this strategy.In Janyary 1999, NEI BV merged with Kolpron Consultants BV (Rotterdam), following several years of successful co-operation between the two organisations. One year later, ECOTEC Research & Consulting (UK) joined the group, which took the name of ECORYS since October 2000.

In 2002, NEI transferred all its activities to its parent company ECORYS Nederland BV. Since that time, ECORYS Netherlands, instead of NEI BV, is also the contracting party for new assignments.

NEI Foundation
The Foundation is a major shareholder (ca 40 %) of the ECORYS Group. The Foundation NEI uses its revenues (mainly from dividends on its ECORYS shares to execute its mission), which is now to stimulate applied economic research. It gives substance to its mission by granting subsidies to projects of research organizations. ECORYS is a preferred beneficiary of these subsidies.