Vinnova's shares views on proposal to reform R&D sector in Sweden

An investigation suggests that government funding for research and innovation is concentrated in significantly fewer authorities than today. Vinnova supports that a reorganization is implemented, but believes that the investigation's alternative proposal should be implemented instead of the main proposal. In its consultation response, Vinnova also writes that a reorganization requires that the government's funding for research and innovation increases sharply so that Sweden does not lose momentum.

The government inquiry New authority structure for research and innovation funding proposes that three new authorities be created, which will distribute all government external competitive funding of research and innovation.: The Science Agency, The Agency for Strategic research and The Innovation Agency.

Other authorities that currently announce research funds must stop doing so. The investigation also makes an alternative proposal to create two agencies: the Swedish Science Agency and the Agency for Strategic research and Innovation

In its response to the consultation, Vinnova supports a reorganization, but rejects the investigation's main proposal with three authorities. Vinnova instead believes that the alternative proposal with two authorities should be implemented.

The reasons for Vinnova's views:

• Two authorities instead of three will be more cost-effective.
• There will be better conditions for different efforts to be coordinated, reinforce each other and produce better effects.
• The proposed new Innovation Agency would become a small public authority with too weak a mandate and too few resources to fulfill the task that the inquiry proposes.

- There have been major changes in society since the current organization for r&d funding was created more than 20 years ago. A new structure can provide better opportunities to promote ground-breaking research, technology development and innovation that increases the ability to solve major societal challenges. But it is important that a new model be better than today, so that we can strengthen Sweden as a leading research and innovation country for the 2030s, says Darja Isaksson, director general of Vinnova.

Vinnova also writes that a reorganization takes a lot of time, which means major changes for the Swedish research and innovation system. Implementation therefore requires that the state's funding for research and innovation simultaneously increases with the goal of reaching 1.2 percent of GDP in 2030, so that Sveriges FoI-system is not hampered.

Read the full referral response here(pdf, 227 kB)

This article was first published on 31 January by Vinnova.