Publications and external funding to play a greater role in direct government grants

Since 2009, the Government has been using quality indicators when allocating part of its direct grants. The Swedish Research Council was recently tasked with developing these indicators further.

The Government wants to continue using a combined measure of the HEIs’ success: bibliometric statistics for number of publications and citations that the research at the HEI results in, and the ability of the HEI to attract external research funding. But as from 2026, these quality measures will play a greater role when the Government allocates direct grants. Some funding from the EU will be given particular weight, but the allocation model will also take into account differences between different disciplines, and the fact that access to external funding varies over time.

On 29 April, the Swedish Research Council submitted a proposal for quality indicators to the Government. How the Government intends to use its indicators to allocate direct grants will be published in the autumn budget.

As from 2028, the Government plans to use strategic recruitment as an additional quality indicator for allocation.

The assignment to develop quality indicators is an item in the Government’s research and innovation bil (in Swedish). External link.