Qualitative aspects of Swedish participation in EU R&D A report on 'Qualitative aspects of Swedish participation in EU research programmes' is now available in print and may also shortly be available in electronic form. The report summarises the results of a study of the scientific quality of Swedish participation in the EU's RT... A report on 'Qualitative aspects of Swedish participation in EU research programmes' is now available in print and may also shortly be available in electronic form. The report summarises the results of a study of the scientific quality of Swedish participation in the EU's RTD Framework Programme, which the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Ministry of Education and Science, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences commissioned in 1997. The study was intended to supplement earlier national studies which focussed on quantitative analyses of Swedish EU research and not on its basic scientific quality. While the scope of this activity is very broad, the researchers limited their study to the first and fourth activities of the EU's Fourth RTD Framework Programme (1994 to 1998). The study is based on overall and indirect information on the qualitative aspects of Swedish participation in EU research, a questionnaire to the researchers involved, and a study of the status of EU researchers in Swedish research councils and sectoral bodies. The researchers also considered quality assurance in the actual assessment process. One of their main conclusions is that the EU Framework Programmes are very heterogeneous, however only certain parts can be characterised as constituting basic research. Extrapolating further from their findings, the authors conclude: 'It is possible to divide Swedish participation in EU research into two separate research cultures'. One culture (IT and Industry/Technology) has low basic research relevance and strong links to industry and sectoral bodies, while a second culture (Bioscience, Social sciences, Environment and Human Capital) the researchers say, is distinguished by a high degree of basic research relevance as well as great interest from the academic scientific community and links to Swedish Research Council funding. The study also demonstrates that the best Swedish researchers and their project applications are competitive in the EU and that an overwhelming majority of Swedish researchers consider their EU projects can be classified as targeted basic research or applied research. Countries Sweden
