Universities in Sweden will see a new model for quality-based resource allocation, which the state research funders have been commissioned to design in the spring. This hardly represents a well-founded policy decision but is a compromise from the time of the January agreement. Still, it has been adopted by the Riksdag and must therefore be implemented. It is based on “profile areas”, “high-quality strategic research initiatives that the higher education institutions themselves define”, which will “aim to strengthen the higher education institutions’ research profiles and contribute to increased quality in research”. Funding applications can then be submitted for these profile areas; the funding bodies assess the quality, and the government decides on the allocation of funding. Thus, new funds within the basic grant for research will be distributed according to a different model than the previous indicator-based model.
For a number of years, Finland has been applying a model for profiling that has proven to work well over the long term, where each university submits an application for one or more sub-profiles. The applications are assessed by a panel consisting of Presidents/Vice Presidents, who are accustomed to both assessing research quality and developing the activities of higher education institutions.
The hope is that Sweden will now adopt a similar model. Stockholm University cannot possibly accommodate its entire profile breadth within the framework of a single call for proposals, wherein the funds are likely to be rather limited. It only creates undesirable internal competition. It would simply be better to apply for a single area, which is important for the entire university – possibly with a couple of sub-profiles – and to focus on how this can be developed through, for example, a handful of strategic recruitments. If the focus is on the university’s overall profiling instead of a number of individual applications, it will be clearer that these relate to basic grants, not programme applications, and it will be easier to apply for collaborations between universities. It would make the most out of a model that few have called for and contribute to the overall goal of strengthening Swedish research.
This article is written by Astrid Söderbergh Widding, President of Stockholm University. It appears in the section ”Words from the University’s senior management team”, where different members take turns to write about topical issues. The section appears in every edition of News for staff which is distributed to the entirety of the University staff.