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

Summary SOU 2008:30
The Inquiry proposes a unified council for health with a broader
focus than medical research. There is a need for a council that can
take responsibility for the whole of the health area, from basic
research in “modern biology” (that is funded by the National
Research Council’s Scientific Council for Natural and Engineering
Sciences) and biomedicine to the link between research and clinical
activities or to innovations and new treatment methods. The
council should also handle questions concerning global health,
clinical trials and much of the needs-driven healthcare research.
The Inquiry proposes that FAS, the National Research
Council’s Scientific Committee for Humanities and Social Sciences
and the research that is supported by the Committee for
Educational Science be brought together in a unified council for
social sciences, research driven by social and education policy, and
humanities. Doing so can guarantee both continuity and renewal,
so that basic research of the highest quality that also sheds light on
important problems is supported along with applied approaches.
Parts of the Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems’ social science
research should also be transferred to the new council for society
and culture.
The competence available in the Innovation Actors Division of
the Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems concerning different
kinds of cooperation programmes must also be transferred to the
council for nature, engineering and innovation but also to the other
councils. However, the new agency should not work on the
business parts of commercialisation work. It is important to have a
clear division of responsibilities between the agency, the Swedish
Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Nutek), Innovationsbron
AB and other relevant actors.
As a result of its unified structure, the new agency will be better
able to supply the Government with information in research policy
matters. This will increase the possibilities to coordinate
international contacts and cooperation. The inquiry has hopes that
the effect will be measurably larger than with the present form of
funding, both in a scientific and in a social perspective.
The Inquiry assumes that basic funding for the universities will
be increased and that this will be handled somewhere else, or in
some other way, so that the new funding system can focus on
strategic action for the concentration of resources, renewal, quality
and applications. The new agency needs to concentrate on this
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