Har öppna utlysningar blivit mindre öppna? : En undersökning av villkor för forskningsprojekt i Sverige 2000–2026

Sammanfattning

Academic freedom is globally under attack. The greatest threat comes from authoritarian anti-pluralistic parties when they assume power. However, the threat can also come from well-willing governments overregulating academic institutions or funding. This study focuses on how the regulation applied through research funding, specifically research projects, has changed from 2000 to 2026. Previous research in this field and theories about research policy are applied as analytical tools. 103 open calls for project grants between 2000-2026, from both private and public funders of research, have been collected and coded into a quantitative dataset of 10 variables. The dataset has subsequently been analyzed with the use of bivariate analysis on each variable to determine changes in criteria, requirements and terms during the research period. Generally, the results show that research funders increase regulation on practical aspects of research projects rather than their objective. Furthermore, it supports the findings from previous research that research policy in Sweden has become the subject of project thinking, increasing requirements to be of public interest and executable as well as facing more political goals and conditions. Private funders have also proved to provide more freedom and flexibility in their research funding than public funders. This study shows the importance of looking to research funding when discussing academic freedom and that more research is needed in this important field.