‘Funding shortage is damaging Swedish infrastructure’

Sweden’s largest government research funder has warned that the country must urgently increase its spending on infrastructures, especially those dealing with environmental science, if it is to maintain its success in this area.

Financing for research infrastructure is falling significantly short of what is needed, a nationwide strategy released by the Swedish Research Council on 16 October says.

Such projects provide vital insights on complex issues, operating over decades and collecting huge amounts of data that need to be stored, processed and transferred. To operate properly they need adequate and secure funding, say report authors Björn Halleröd, the research council’s head of research infrastructure, and Jan-Eric Sundgren, chairman of the Swedish Council for Research Infrastructure.