When research becomes geopolitics – how should Sweden act?

A recurring question was how Sweden, with limited resources compared with countries such as the United States and China, can mobilise and use its strengths more strategically. In the discussion, collaboration was highlighted as a Swedish advantage, both nationally and internationally: from the ability to bridge boundaries between universities, disciplines and sectors, to the importance of strong links with the EU and leading research environments globally.

Stable conditions beyond political cycles

Anders Ygeman (Social Democratic Party), Member of Parliament and Vice Chair of the Committee on Education, emphasised the responsibility of politicians to cooperate across party lines to create stable conditions for research.

“If Sweden is to be competitive globally, it is essential that we reach national agreement on the future direction of Swedish research. If we are to compete with countries that have far greater resources than we do, we also need to allocate more funding to research, both from the Swedish state and from industry,” said Ygeman.

Josefin Malmqvist, (Moderate Party), education policy spokesperson and Member of the Committee on Education, was also positive to increased government research funding, but argued that clearer priorities are needed for both direct government research funding and strategic research investments.

“We need to ensure that we get more out of the money we put into the research system. Politicians have a responsibility to reduce administration and bureaucracy, but also to dare to prioritise research funding and invest in research environments that already demonstrate excellence and strong potential,” said Malmqvist.

Anders Söderholm, President of KTH Royal Institute of Technology, pointed to SciLifeLab External link. as an example of how strategic research investments can succeed when they are given long-term conditions.

“SciLifeLab is a successful example where Karolinska Institutet, KTH, Stockholm University and Uppsala University, as the founding universities, created a framework in which the best research ideas were continuously prioritised, with a strong focus on excellence, international networks and a high degree of freedom for researchers. There are important lessons to draw from SciLifeLab when we discuss how similar initiatives can be built in other areas,” said Söderholm.

Söderholm also highlighted MedTechLabs External link., run by Karolinska Institutet, KTH and Region Stockholm, as another good example of how excellent research can develop when researchers, through relatively limited but long-term core funding, are given the opportunity to pursue research that is not yet fully defined.

“MedTechLabs brings together engineering and medical expertise with clinical practitioners in every project. This has already led to new technology that can help identify cancer without invasive procedures. These are remarkable achievements that were made possible even though it was not known from the outset that this was exactly where the research would lead,” said Söderholm.

Hans Adolfsson, President of Stockholm University, saw a need above all for direct government research funding, but also highlighted that the Strategic Research Areas, SFOs, have helped Stockholm University become strong today in climate, marine and environmental research, as well as life science research.

“In climate research, we can now build on this within Stockholm Trio through ClimTrio, which the Swedish Research Council has recommended that the government fund as a strategic initiative. It is a new centre for climate transition that builds on the complementary strengths of our three universities in technology and natural sciences, medicine, social sciences and humanities,” said Adolfsson.

Collaboration for strong research environments

Katarina Bjelke, Director General of the Swedish Research Council, emphasised that SFOs and excellence clusters need to be part of a broader, coherent system.

“They are important tools for mobilising research and innovation, but I also believe that the state needs to raise its ambitions further in order to create opportunities both for funding for curiosity-driven research and for strategic research investments. We need both,” said Bjelke.

Annika Östman Wernerson, President of Karolinska Institutet, called for increased dialogue between academia, politics, industry and research funders.

“We need more forums for dialogue between academia, politics, industry and research funders on how we can build excellent research environments,” said Östman Wernerson.

Östman Wernerson also pointed to the importance of clinical research in ensuring that basic research can turn into new treatments and benefits for patients.

“Clinical research is the link in the chain to reach innovation. We need to secure it, and it takes time to build excellent research environments in a clinical setting,” said Östman Wernerson.

As an example, she mentioned the work on the Centre for Medical Radiation Science, where Karolinska Institutet, KTH, Stockholm University and Region Stockholm are bringing together expertise in medical radiation science for the cancer treatment of the future.

“Here, we see the challenge of securing funding for environments that are not yet established as excellent, but that can create clear value for Sweden in the form of improved healthcare and innovations in life science, an important sector for Sweden,” said Östman Wernerson.

Partnerships in the EU and globally

The EU’s upcoming framework programme for research and innovation was a central part of the seminar’s concluding discussion. Stockholm Trio has a joint representation in the EU, and together the three universities are significant recipients of research funding from the EU’s current framework programme for research and innovation.

Annika Östman Wernerson emphasised that Sweden needs to work more actively to strengthen the EU’s position in global research and innovation and ensure that the next framework programme has an increased and ring-fenced budget for research and innovation.

“We hope that Sweden will push for a significantly increased EU budget for research and innovation, as advocated by the European Parliament,” said Östman Wernerson.

From the political side, there was support for increasing the EU budget for research and innovation, but both Josefin Malmqvist and Anders Ygeman stressed that this should not be done through an increase in the EU budget as a whole.

“If we knew that an increase in the total EU budget would go solely to research and innovation, I would support it. But it is more likely that an expanded budget would go to areas like agriculture and development projects, so I believe that the longer we can maintain Sweden’s restrictive budget position, the better,” said Ygeman.

Anders Söderholm emphasised that research policy, both in Sweden and in the EU, needs to be shaped with greater regard to how rapidly the global research and innovation landscape is changing.

“It is not only China that is investing heavily in research. Countries such as Japan and South Korea are doing so as well, and in the United States, major tech companies are driving the corporatization of knowledge. We need to shape research policy with the rapid development of the wider world in mind,” said Söderholm, adding that international research collaboration is more important than ever, even though it has also become more challenging due to the increased need for research security.

Andreas Göthenberg, Executive Director of STINT, agreed and argued that Sweden needs close links with the strongest research environments in the world to remain an internationally competitive research nation.

“More than 98 per cent of all knowledge is generated outside Sweden. We need to be properly connected to the best environments in the world and be able to recruit the best researchers here,” said Göthenberg.

He also highlighted the need for better international intelligence and analysis. It is not enough to collaborate with the environments that are strong today. Sweden needs to understand where the leading research environments of the future are emerging.

“STINT is therefore investing in intelligence and analysis and now has five staff members abroad with research backgrounds from Sweden, who can contribute contextual understanding and input to the strategic work of the universities,” said Göthenberg.

Photo: Anette Persson