Forskningsfinansiering - kvalitet och relevans, SOU ... - Regeringen

SOU 2008:30 Summary
Inquiry see any signs of profound changes in this respect among
the research funders.
The Inquiry therefore proposes the establishment of a new
coordinated research funding agency, the Research and Innovation
Agency that accommodates four subject-oriented councils. In
organisational terms the Inquiry proposes that four councils be set
up focussing on nature, engineering and innovation; medicine and
health; climate, environment and agricultural sciences; and society
and culture. These councils will be held together by a central
agency organisation that also includes central research policy,
strategic, analytical and international activities, a department for
research infrastructures and departments for legal affairs and
communication.
Bringing together all the funding instruments in each council,
instead of distinguishing, as is the case today, between support for
research and funding to promote innovation, increases the
potential of attaining both high scientific quality and the application
of research. At the same time, the prevailing polarisation of
tasks in the current agency structure can be avoided. The new
councils accommodate support for path-breaking basic research,
action to strengthen research environments, cross-disciplinary
programmes, industry development, and support for technical
development and research applications. Organising the councils in
a unified structure enables combined action between scientific
domains and between different organisations. This increases the
possibilities of linking up strong basic research environments with
groups and researchers working on needs-driven issues. In this
way, scientific renewal can be simulated at the same time as
substantial effects are attained on the innovation system.
The Inquiry proposes dividing the research currently funded by
Formas, the National Research Council’s Scientific Council for
Natural and Engineering Sciences and the Swedish Agency for
Innovation Systems between three councils, where responsibility
for funding both basic research and applied research and for
technical verification and innovation in chemistry, physics and
engineering is gathered together in one council, while environmental
research, meteorology, agriculture and climate research
with the fundamental sciences of “green biology”, ecology,
geology, etc. are integrated in one council. This council should also
cover activities in both basic research and applied research, along
with various forms of applications of research.
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