Academia-industry links would improve Sweden’s ‘mediocre’ R&D reputation

Linking research funding to the amount of business collaboration a university does could improve Sweden’s “mediocre” reputation as a country in which to conduct research, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise has suggested.

The report by Svenskt Näringsliv, released earlier this month, found that only 6 per cent of international research-intensive companies see Sweden as a highly competitive country in which to pursue R&D. In addition, 94 per cent of the firms said they had not seriously considered Sweden as an alternative when deciding where to make R&D investments during the past five years. And 74 per cent said they had no plans to do so in the next five years.