In June 2022, the government-appointed investigator, Ingrid Petersson, was tasked with leading an investigation into how Swedish external research and innovation funding should be organised. The Pro-Vice-Chancellor has previously written a blog post about the aim of the research funding investigation, referred to as Fofin, and the interim report that was presented in May 2023.
Hans Adolfsson, Vice-Chancellor.
Photo: Mattias Pettersson
This week, the review committee presented their report to Minister of Education Mats Persson. If you wish to read the proposals presented in the report you can find a report containing an English summary on the Swedish Government Offices' website. It is fundamentally positive that this is a topic of discussion. To ensure that Swedish research achieves the highest quality, having a funding system supporting both free and curiosity-driven research as well as challenge-driven research and innovation is a requirement. The instructions for the investigation could, however, have been more comprehensively formulated. Funding of Swedish research covers so much more than just funding from Swedish public funding bodies. An investigation into the entire system, including higher education institutions' direct government funding, Swedish public and private external funding, and funding from international funding bodies would have provided a better overview of the funding system in its entirety.
As a result of the instructions for the investigation, the review committee suggests that the current Swedish research funding bodies the Swedish Research Council, Formas, Vinnova innovation agency and Forte, as well as practically the entire governmental research funding structure is abolished in its current format. Instead, the review committee proposes to establish three new agencies for government funding of research: a science agency, a strategic research agency and an innovation agency.
This science agency is suggested to fund research of the highest quality in all scientific fields. The agency would also be responsible for the funding of research infrastructure and include a separate national digital infrastructure for research purposes. A strategic research agency is suggested to have a broader mission to fund research and innovation of importance to key sectors in Swedish society, including the private sector. Furthermore, this agency is proposed to be responsible for the development and funding of international collaboration, and to conduct funding calls in all areas where public authorities with other core missions currently make calls. An innovation agency is proposed to support societal transformation in a direction that can solve societal challenges and strengthen competitiveness in the business sector.
In their investigation, the review committee based their proposed agency setup on seven criteria deemed important for a new system for competitive public funding. The criteria cover safeguarding academic freedom; supporting internationally competitive and groundbreaking research; securing knowledge and innovation capacity to address challenges in society and strengthening competitiveness in the business sector; stimulating research-based education and lifelong learning; as well as reducing administrative costs and simplifying the application process for those seeking research funding. These are fundamentally reasonable criteria.
We are now eagerly awaiting a chance to comment on the investigation so that Umeå University, as well as other stakeholders in Swedish research, can provide a detailed response to the proposals suggested in the report. We will return to this subject in upcoming blog posts when we have had time to delve deeper into the proposals of the report.