Beta started as a national research school in the 90s of the past century. Since 1998 it is officially recognized by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). During the first decade Beta had set the requirements for the PhD programs, and in particular for the education program and the supervision, developed research policies, offered PhD courses, and organized conferences. Later on (in the years 2006-2010, say), with reduced budgets Beta had its focus on the PhD program, i.e., on setting requirements for the education program, the supervision of PhD students, providing PhD courses, and organizing a yearly PhD conference.

In recent years, many Dutch universities started graduate schools and programs. The current trend is that these graduate schools set the requirements for the education plans of PhD students and their supervision. Furthermore, PhD courses are only organized by them on topics for which there are enough participants from their own university.

Beta has decided to define the future scope as Operations Management and Logistics (OML) in a narrower sense and aims to become the national network Operations Management and Logistics. The aim is to unite the OM groups in The Netherlands.

Every two years, Beta organizes the two-day Netherlands Conference on Operations Management and Logistics together with the research schools TRAIL and ERIM. In the intervening year, Beta organizes a symposium for all Beta members in which especially the Beta PhD students present their research.