In the research bill, the government announced the initiatives it would be taking over the next three years. These included major actions in a number of selected fields, as well as increased direct government funding (see previously published news article).
It has now been revealed how this direct government funding will be shared out among the higher education institutions. Uppsala University will receive an additional SEK 49 million in 2021, which is equivalent to an increase of 2.2 per cent. The largest increases go to non-university higher education institutions, followed by the new universities. The allocation therefore manifests a clear drive to build up research at the smaller higher education institutions.
“The large universities are likely to do well in the competition for the targeted initiatives via the research councils, but direct government funding is tremendously important for their ability to develop freely on the basis of their own circumstances and to offer attractive and secure career opportunities. We use large parts of our direct government funding for co-financing of externally financed projects, so in practice the room for manoeuvre that is so important for retaining an internationally prominent position is small when the available funds are so limited,” says Vice-Chancellor Anders Hagfeldt.
SEK 45 million of the SEK 49 million coming to Uppsala University was already shared out among the disciplinary domain boards in December, based on the Planning Division’s forecasts.