State investment in research is a long tradition in Sweden. Uppsala University, founded in 1477, is the oldest university in the Nordic countries. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was established in 1739 with the aim of promoting the utilization of science in the service of society; the Royal Academy of Agriculture and Forestry dates from 1811. Research came into its own at Sweden’s universities in the 19th century and then increased in volume throughout the 20th century.

Public resources for research have traditionally gone straight to the universities. In the 1940s, however, a system of research councils along American and British lines gradually began to take shape in Sweden. This meant that a system of flexible research funding was introduced. During the 1960s, research resources increased sharply due to the expansion of the higher education system and heavier investments in sectoral research.

Given larger research resources and an increasingly complex financing system, the need for a national research policy arose. In 1979 the government introduced its first research policy bill. In conjunction with this, Parliament decided that a bill of this kind should be submitted to it during each parliamentary term of office. These bills would serve as instruments for long-range planning and coordination of public sector R&D investments.

When Parliament adopted the 1979 research policy bill, it also established the “sectoral research principle,” which has been a key element of Swedish research policy ever since. According to this principle, each sector of society makes an assessment of its need for R&D programs and weighs these against other needs in order to promote the development of that sector.

Most basic research in Sweden takes place at the universities, university colleges and handful of private universities that make up the Swedish higher education system. These institutions are allocated basic resources for research from the State, but there are also many other sources.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Swedish public system of financing research developed into a pluralistic system with numerous financiers who were independent of each other. The basic research councils were one part of the system, the many sectoral public agencies with R&D resources another. In addition, the early 1990s saw the establishment of a number of research foundations aimed at financing research in specific areas.

This text is published on this site with the approval from the Swedish Institute