In a report released earlier this month, Statistics Sweden forecasts that the Swedish government plans to increase R&D funding by SEK 747 million ($92.1 million) to SEK 34.4 billion ($4.2 billion) for 2016, which is 3.7% of this year’s federal budget. This is a slight decrease from 2015, when R&D funding made up 3.8% of the budget. Half of this year’s R&D funding, SEK 17.2 billion, is reserved for higher education, a SEK 346 million increase from 2015. Funding for federal R&D agencies, such as the Swedish Research Council and Swedish Research Council for Health, is forecast to increase SEK 330 million, bringing total funding for government research agencies (including academia) to SEK 27.6 billion. The majority of R&D funding (71%) will be for “general advancement of knowledge,” a category which is split into six fields of science, with medicine and health science receiving the most funding at 34% and natural science receiving 28%. Public R&D agencies are forecast to invest SEK 1.6 billion in R&D funding, a SEK 354 million increase.

Source: Statistiska Centralbyrån