Swedish Research Council: More funds to fewer
More funding to fewer scientists; more support for some 30 junior researchers; fresh funds to basic research on energy sources and sustainable development efforts – these are some of the new ideas appearing as the Swedish Research Council (VR, for “Vetenskapsrådet”) terminated their selection of applications granted for the next budget period, starting in 2007, in support of natural science and technology.
This year some 2,000 applications have been viewed by VR in these two fields. 313 million SEK have been appropriated for 2007; if the following two years are included, about 900 MSEK are involved.
In KTH´s own sphere, a total of some 112 MSEK were granted by VR for the 2007-2009 period. In addition, six applications for financing of new posts as Junior Research Fellow at KTH´s departments were honoured.
When compared with last year´s grants from VR, the average project sum was increased, resulting in a reduction of the number of grants awarded to just about 22 per cent of all applications filed.
– The increase wasn´t a very large one, but it was long needed, says Arne Johansson, Principal Secretary of VR´s Scientific Council. In the process, we extended our support to the top league among the applying researchers.
Competition for the funding of new Research Fellow posts was particularly fierce, as the Council wanted to grant somewhat more money for each individual post. Also, younger women got a larger share of the cake than usual this year – one-fourth of the applications were from women, but their total share of the applications granted, among all the filed ones, was even larger.
In basic energy research, some 15 MSEK a year will be allotted to 19 different projects; this is a joint effort between VR and the Swedish Energy Agency. Another joint project is in sustainable development; here VR co-operates with Formas, VINNOVA (Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems), and the Swedish National Space Board. The total budget for this amounts to 106 MSEK for the coming three years. VR´s share of this is 28.7 MSEK, all of which will be invested in a number of climatic research projects.