Sweden¡¯s?plan to invest?¡°heavily¡± in groundbreaking research so that it wins more of its own Nobels has been welcomed by sector leaders, who stressed that the money needed to be kept free from political control, with universities given autonomy?over how its spent.?

More details of a new programme?that intends to fund riskier, longer-term research projects have been announced by the education ministry,?after?first being?mooted in a?.

¡°Sweden should not only award Nobel Prizes, we should also win them,¡± said minister of education Johan Pehrson in a statement announcing the plans. ¡°To get there, we need to invest heavily in groundbreaking research.¡±

The Swedish Research Council has been asked to look at how the programme could work and its director general,?Katarina Bjelke,?told Times Higher Education that it?¡°will strengthen research and innovation, and in the long term, also enhance Swedish competitiveness¡±.

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While the programme design is still in ¡°early stages¡±, Bjelke said, a key feature will be the capacity for long-term funding, as well as a far greater appetite for risk. ¡°Researchers that have great ideas and that are willing to work long-term with those ideas will have an opportunity to do so,¡± she said.

¡°Some of them will not succeed. Usually when you apply for money, you need to know that you will succeed, but for groundbreaking research, you need to take a risk, and sometimes it will fail.¡±

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Bjelke noted that Sweden ¡°has a tradition of investing rather a lot of money in research and innovation¡± but that investment ¡°is a little bit too spread out¡±.?

¡°We need to focus it a little bit more, and we need to put even more money into groundbreaking areas,¡± she added.?

Martin Berg?, vice-president of the Karolinska Institute,?welcomed the?latest research bill but said that an?ideal basic research funding programme?¡°would leave it up to the universities to decide what they want to do and base it on their actual strengths¡±.

Providing ¡°significant funding,¡± he said, ¡°is all the government needs to do. If they try to control too much, we¡¯re going to lose excellence.¡±

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The Nobel reference ¡°shows that they mean business about excellence,¡± Berg? said.?But he does not consider Sweden to have underperformed in the Nobels, with 39 total wins and eight in physiology or medicine, the Karolinska Institute¡¯s speciality. ¡°I think we¡¯ve done quite well, but of course we can do better.¡±

Hans Ellegren, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences,?said ¡°research funding, to a larger extent than is the case now, needs to be directed towards those environments that have the best chance to succeed¡±.

Previously, research funding has taken the form of ¡°earmarked investments to support research expected to provide short-term solutions on societal challenges¡±, Ellegren said. ¡°There is an increasing belief among Swedish politicians that research can be ¡®ordered¡¯ and short-term benefits can be obtained simply by allocating more money to particular areas,¡± he warned.

Ellegren said the proposed programme for basic research ¡°is a good idea¡± if ¡°properly handled,¡± adding: ¡°The challenge will be to identify researchers that have the potential to make groundbreaking discoveries ¨C but it is for sure better than earmarking funding to politically defined priority areas.¡±

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emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com