Swedish research funders call for more competitive grants

The heads of six of Sweden’s biggest research funders have called on the government to ratchet up competition for funding in a bill due to be published next year.

In a submission to the bill, published on 27 October, the six research bosses write: “We research funding agencies are convinced that competition produces higher quality. It is therefore important to have better and more long-term conditions for scientists combined with the increased competition. We propose that the government formulates a national system of distribution and redistribution for universities’ basic grants where quality – not quantity – is rewarded with greater clarity than the current system does”.