Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

RESEARCH

What future for Swedish research?

Half of Swedish R&D investment comes from 20 companies. This poses risks for the future, says Nima Sanandaji.

Published: 15 January 2008 19:30 CET

Sweden has for many years been internationally known as a home to innovative businesses and strong scientific institutions.

Investments in technology remain strong, but there are worrying trends. An increasing amount of this research is being outsourced abroad. Also, the investments in research and development are tied to a small number of companies. Swedish research is thus very sensitive to the actions of a small number of actors. If only a few of these actors were to outsource their research, Sweden would lose its innovative edge.

In order to maintain the competitiveness of the economy over time there is a need for new research-intensive companies to be founded and expand.

Until the end of the 19th century, Sweden was still an impoverished nation. But the expansion of private property and free markets opened the way for economic development. Until the middle of the 20th century, Sweden experienced phenomenal growth. Entrepreneurial companies that developed or adopted new technologies played an important role in this development.

SKF is a good example. This Swedish company is known as the largest manufacturer of bearings in the world. The company was founded in 1907 based on the invention of the ball bearing. Already by 1912 SKF was represented in over 30 countries and employed over 20,000 people. Pharmacia was founded in Stockholm in 1911. The company, now absorbed into Pfizer and GE Healthcare, launched many innovative medicines, such as sulfasalazine which is an effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. Other Swedish companies which have based their success on research and development include Volvo, Ericsson and Electrolux.

According to the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise’s information project Ekonomifakta, Sweden invested 108 billion kronor in research and development in 2006. This corresponds to fully 4 percent of the Swedish economy, a high figure in international comparison. Three quarters of this research and development occurs in private business and the funding comes predominately from private enterprise.

The problem is that almost half of these investments occur in a total of 20 Swedish companies. In a time of global competition, an increasing amount of the sums spent on research and development is moving abroad. Ten years ago 78 percent of the research and development investments of large Swedish corporations were focused on projects actually carried out in Sweden. Today this figure has reduced to 56 percent.

Sweden’s economic development started lagging during the 60s and the 70s, as taxes were raised from a relatively low to a very high level. One of the most important results of this societal change was a reduction in the number of entrepreneurial companies that were founded. A significant part of Swedish enterprise is comprised of large companies founded before the year 1970. The fact that so much of the research occurs in a small handful of companies is related to the lack of renewal in the Swedish economy.

Many of the big companies that currently fund so much of the research in Sweden will over time go out of business or move their research abroad. If Sweden is to stay on top of technological development, it is vital for new innovative companies to develop and expand. A free environment for private business is vital not only for the economic, but also the scientific development of Sweden.

Nima Sanandaji

Nima Sanandaji is president of the Swedish free market think tank Captus and publisher of Captus Magazine.

RESEARCH

ANALYSIS: Why are Denmark’s politicians criticising university researchers?

The Danish parliament has recently adopted a controversial text asking universities to ensure that "politics is not disguised as science". The Local's contributor Sophie Standen examines why Denmark's politicians are criticising university researchers.

Published: 9 June 2021 17:13 CEST
ANALYSIS: Why are Denmark's politicians criticising university researchers?
Populist politicians have singled out courses at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) for following a so-called 'woke' agenda. Photo: Bjarke MacCarthy/CBS

What has happened? 

On the 1st of June, a majority in the Danish parliament adopted a written declaration that aimed to combat ‘excessive activism in certain humanities and social science research environments’.

The initial debate was led by Morten Messerschmidt from the Danish People’s Party (DF) and Henrik Dahl from Liberal Alliance (LA). The declaration was then voted through, with all of the major parties in favour, including the governing Social Democratic party.

What does the controversial declaration say? 

The declaration stated that the Danish parliament expects that university managements will ensure the self-regulation of scientific research, so that ‘politics is not disguised as science’.

However, it also asserted that Danish parliament has no right to determine the method or topic of research in Danish universities, and stressed the importance of free and critical debate in the research community.

Who is upset by it? 

The adoption of this position by Danish parliament has proven extremely controversial for many academics and researchers, with over 3,200 Danish and international researchers signing an open letter denouncing the stance adopted by the Danish government.

The authors of the letter stated that ‘academic freedom is under increasing attack’, and described the developments as ‘highly troubling’.

Furthermore, in another open letter to the Minister for Higher Education and Science, Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen, published in the Politiken newspaper, 262 Danish university researchers complained that they were facing increasing occurrences of personal intimidation and harassment due their research.

What is concerning university researchers and professors? 

Professor Lisa Ann Richey, a professor at Copenhagen Business School, told The Local that the parliament’s move was “illiberal” as “it doesn’t support freedom”. 

Richey, who has been a professor in Denmark for more than 20 years, was one of co-organisers of the open letter, and a co-signatory of the letter published in Politiken.

“I am one of the international recruits who finds the Danish research environment a great place to work,” she said. “We have a strong university system and good research environments. One of the things we are risking here is that reputation, and also the possibility of recruiting internationally.”

She said that in her opinion, academia in Denmark was self-policing due to the exhaustive peer-review process and oversight by university authorities. 

“There are lots of checks and balances within academia, and sometimes it doesn’t seem like that because they [the politicians] have no idea how many evaluations we go through,” she said. “We have peer reviews, student reviews, and university assessments to ensure quality in research.” 

Is there a populist campaign behind the statement? 

Richey complained that long before the parliamentary statement, prominent populist politicians “came out on social media calling out particular courses”. 

“They did this to a course I taught in, saying now even CBS has become part of this ‘woke agenda’,” she complained. “This statement about politics dressed up as science, it’s meant to intimidate. We need university leadership to support us and we need everyone to recognise that this is a threat towards academic freedom and also to make sure that we don’t expose individuals”

Anders Bjarklev, the rector of the Danish Technical University (DTU), and president of the rector’s college for Danish universities, echoed this sentiment. Writing on social media, he has called the position adopted by parliament, ‘an attack on research freedom’. 

“When subjects are singled out by politicians, such as gender studies or post-colonial studies, then academics get worried because much of our funding is from the government,” he told The Local. 

“I am also worried that academics will be scared to take part or publish research in these subjects”.  As rector of DTU, he says he is “not sure what we could do differently”, as academics at the university “always want to ensure the highest quality standard of research”.

What has the government said to defend itself? 

In an interview with the Politiken newspaper, Bjørn Brandenborg, the Social Democrat’s spokesperson for higher education and science, insisted that despite the statement, there was “no general distrust of universities” on the part of the government. 

“The Danish parliament has a right, like all other citizens, to have an opinion on research results”, he continued, while stressing that “the Danish parliament will not become involved in decisions over what is researched in Danish universities”.

In his view, he said, the text voted on by the parliament was “completely unproblematic”, as  “all it says is that universities should take responsibility for the quality of their research”.

This adopted stance by the Danish government has shaken the arms-length principle of trust between Danish research institutions and the Danish government. Many have denounced the politicians who have singled out specific researchers on social media as examples of political activism within research in Denmark.

In a statement to Politiken, the minister responsible for Higher Education and Science in Denmark, Ane Halsboe-Jørgenson, remarked that the 3,241 researchers that had signed the open letter had “reached the wrong conclusion” about the adopted declaration.

She insisted that the Danish government is “fighting for research freedom”, while also remarking that she thinks “we politicians must stay far away from judging individuals and individual research areas”.

What will happen next? 

For Professor Lisa Ann Richey, “now, when major political parties are part of this, making a ‘non-problem’ a problem, then it’s really time that we [academics] have to respond.”

“Our work is important and it is not acceptable behaviour to try and bully individual researchers and to police research environments,” she continued. “This is something that will be moving forward now that universities have spoken out officially”. 

SHOW COMMENTS