Formas aims to boost success rates

The Swedish Research Council Formas has introduced measures to counter a significant decline in success rates for funding applications.

Success rates have fallen from 20 per cent in 2001 to 2007 to just over 8 per cent in 2013, even though the amount of available funding has increased by 80 per cent during this time, according to Formas.

The main reason for the decline was a tripling of the budgets of projects that received funding, Formas said. The number of applications has also increased by 14 per cent.