The proposal concerns quality-based resource allocation of new funding within the ‘direct government appropriation’ to higher education institutions (HEIs) for research and education at the third-cycle level. The model is based on each individual higher education institution defining its own profile areas, which are then evaluated by experts prior to the Swedish Government's allocation of resources.
The elaborated proposal is the result of a Government mandate to further develop the parts of the model that concern how the application and evaluations of the profile areas should be designed and implemented.
In the elaborated proposal, assessment criteria and grading criteria, for example, have been specified. The work has been carried out in ongoing dialogue between research funding bodies and the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions.
The proposal in brief
The higher education institutions affected by the model must submit an application in which the higher education institution describes and substantiates the planned development for one or more profile areas defined by the higher education institution itself. Both established profile areas and profile areas under construction can be included.
Using the information in the applications, the profile areas are then assessed by an international panel based on three aspects:
- scientific quality
- conditions for quality
- quality of third-stream activities.
For each of the three aspects, there are main questions and guiding questions to assist the experts, as well as instructions on what supporting documentation the higher education institutions must provide to describe their profile areas.
The panel sets grades and formulates opinions that become supporting documentation for the Government's decision on the allocation of the increased appropriations.