Researchers call for changes to Sweden's R&D funding system
Members of Sweden's largest union for researchers, university professors and PhD students (SULF) have called on their country's government to make more research funding directly available to universities. By allocating more public money to the universities, researchers would spend less time on applying for funding and more time on their research, wrote SULF chair Christoph Bargholtz and SULF Director Git Claesson Pipping in an open letter to the government. Currently, public funds for research and development (R&D) are distributed either directly to universities or institutions of higher education, or on a competitive basis through research councils and sectoral authorities. SULF also wants resources for the induction of young researchers. With a sharp increase in the number of PhD students, senior researchers have had to spend more time training young researchers and have devoted fewer resources to writing papers. As a result, Sweden's performance in publishing scientific papers has diminished, argues the trade union. Finally, SULF makes the case for PhD students to receive full employment instead of scholarship positions, in order to provide them with job security, and the need to make scientific careers more attractive.
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Sweden