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FOREDRAG FRA MØTER OG SEMINARER
Foredragsholderne blir bedt om å sende inn sine manuskripter eller lage et sammendrag på
noen sider som kan brukes i årboken. Det er svært få som sender inn slike bidrag. Stadig
flere har elektroniske presentasjoner som legges ut på vår hjemmeside
(www.ntva.no). Fra
"Fagstoff' og "Presentasjoner" kobles en videre til en oversikt med presentasjonene NTVA
har fått fra foredragsholderne.
Fostering breakthrough research: A comparative study (1)
Foredrag på NTVA-møte i Trondheim, 22. januar 2013
GunnarOquist, Professor Emeritus, Department of Plant Physiology, Umeå Plant
Science Centre, Umeå University
In the autumn of 2011 , l and Mats Benner, Professor of Science Policy at Lund University,
were asked by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to make a study to elucidate why
Swedish research of high impact was lagging behind research in Denmark, the Netherlands
and Switzerland. The result of the study was published in December 2012 under the Iitle
"Fostering breakthrough research: A comparative study" (1 ). In my talk today, l will
summarize the main findings of the report, which can for an in depth study be down loaded
from the home page of the Academy (www kva.se). The background was a series of
bibliometric studies (2) made by the Swedish Research Council, showing that Sweden had a
falling share of high impact publications, while Denmark, the Nethertands and Switzertand
appeared to be maintaining or even increasing their share of highly cited publications.
Based on the journal subject fields defined by lhe data base producer Thomson - Reuther
(252 subject fields), the Swedish Research Council took responsibility for updating the
bibliometry, focusing on the ratio of highly cited publications defined as "top 10%"
publications. i.e. publications referred to higher than the 90
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citation percentile (3). We also
collected published factual information about the research systems in the countries selected
for comparison, and we visited the reference countries to interview key people in the national
research systems. An analysis group composed of distinguished scientists helped us to
critically analyze all compiled information. To seek explanations to the current situation we
took a 20-year historie perspective, examining in particular policy decisions laken at
government level and developments related to urniversities and funding systems.
Compiled publication data reveal that Sweden exceeds the world average for the 10% most
highly cited publications by 15%, while the corresponding figures for Denmark, the
Netherlands and Switzerland are between 35 and 40%, which is comparable with the USA
(Figure 1). Furthermore, the category of young researchers performing at the "top 10%"
publication level is lower in Sweden !han in the more successful reference countries (1 ).
The analyses showed that universities are the weak link in the Swedish research system.
The following characteristics of Swedish universities were identified:
• Swedish universities contain a substantial element of "sectorial research", where
relevance otten takes preference over scientific quality. Such research is in the
academically more successful countries largely dealt with in the national institute sector
outside the university system. The national policy !hat has emerged for Swedish
universities therefore appear to have a weaker focus on the quality level of
groundbreaking research !han what we
fW~d
in universities in Denmark, and in the
Netherlands and Switzerland in particular.
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