Funding the future

摘要

It's well know that Sweden is the world's top per capita investor in R&D. And you might think that the country's tradition of high taxation and generous public expenditure has created this sunny state of affairs. But you'd be wrong. Much of the country's research infrastructure now depends on support from industry. In fact, in Sweden and neighbouring Denmark and Norway, scientists are having to get creative about where they obtain their funds. The truth is that while Sweden continues to top the world's list of research-intensive nations by spending 4.3 per cent of its GDP on R&D, more than three-quarters of that money comes from sources outside government. This level of private investment leaves many other nations green with envy, but for the country's academics, the paucity of the government's payout is worrying -even though it is the world's seventh most generous in relation to GDP.