Introduction

‘What is the proper use of the word “no” and what isn’t?’ ‘Would it be possible to create a funicular to the moon?’ Questions like these are more likely to be asked by curious students or children than by sophisticated researchers. And yet this type of unbounded curiosity remains one of the main drivers behind fundamental scientific research. That is why these and nearly 12,000 other questions were all admitted onto a nationwide platform with the intent to aggregate the national curiosity of the Dutch – a platform that was designated to become the Dutch National Research Agenda.