Buffeted Community Braces for More Change

摘要

Swedish science is in a state of upheaval. The country's research is renowned for its quality and receives a larger slice of the national income than in any other European country—3.7% of gross domestic product, twice the European Union average. But recent funding changes have brought unrest among researchers to the boil. Sweden's faltering economy during the 1990s forced the government to cut back sharply on state funding of basic research and environmental science, after having created independent foundations focusing on applied research. The result: a marked shift in funding from basic to applied research, and steady growth in the foundations' influence over science policy. All this has prompted a heated debate over who controls research.