DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH IN SWEDEN – A DISPERSED RESEARCH COMMUNITY UNDER PRESSURE

The report identifies the Swedish development research community as highly fragmented and dispersed across various universities and disciplines. While the field has expanded from traditional social sciences into natural sciences and medicine, this growth has led to increased competition for limited, short-term funding, primarily from the Swedish Research Council (VR) via the Uforsk instrument. The study highlights a significant gap in institutional support and a lack of formal networking platforms, which undermines research relevance and collaboration with practitioners. It recommends the institutionalization of the Swedish Development Research Network (SweDev) and the creation of specialized funding lines to bridge the gap between academia and policy.

• The Swedish development research community is fragmented and geographically dispersed, with many researchers operating in small environments or without affiliation to formal research groups or networks.
• Development research in Sweden has expanded beyond social sciences to include natural sciences, medicine, and global health, shifting from a traditional discipline to a broader 'development-related research' approach.
• Funding is heavily concentrated in a limited number of mechanisms, primarily the Swedish Research Council (VR) and its Uforsk instrument, which 30% of respondents identified as their main source.
• Current funding structures are detrimental to development research because they favor individual or small-team projects over institutional support and fail to account for the high resource intensity of collaborating with partners in poor countries.
• There is a strong desire among researchers for more interaction with policymakers and practitioners, but a lack of institutionalized collaborative spaces makes such interaction irregular and short-term.
• Network affiliation is positively correlated with higher academic output, including publication rates and active engagement in research communication.
• Strong research environments in Sweden, such as those at Lund, Gothenburg, Uppsala, Stockholm, and Linnaeus Universities, often rely on a combination of intellectual leadership and integrated educational programs to survive.
• Unlike Denmark, Norway, and Finland, Sweden lacks a formal national association for development research, which limits the ability to pool resources and influence policy.

APA

Strand, C., Vähämäki, J., Söderbaum, F., Bjarnegård, E., Ewald, J., Hajdu, F., Jirström, M., Lalander, R., & Melber, H. (2020). DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH IN SWEDEN – A DISPERSED RESEARCH COMMUNITY UNDER PRESSURE. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/development-research-in-sweden-eba-final-webb2.pdf

Chicago

Strand, Cecilia, Janet Vähämäki, Fredrik Söderbaum, Elin Bjarnegård, Jonas Ewald, Flora Hajdu, Magnus Jirström, Rickard Lalander, and Henning Melber. DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH IN SWEDEN – A DISPERSED RESEARCH COMMUNITY UNDER PRESSURE. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2020. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/development-research-in-sweden-eba-final-webb2.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{strand2020development, author = {Strand, Cecilia and Vähämäki, Janet and Söderbaum, Fredrik and Bjarnegård, Elin and Ewald, Jonas and Hajdu, Flora and Jirström, Magnus and Lalander, Rickard and Melber, Henning}, title = {{DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH IN SWEDEN – A DISPERSED RESEARCH COMMUNITY UNDER PRESSURE}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2020}, month = apr, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/development-research-in-sweden-eba-final-webb2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }