The new research bill contained increased government funding for research in Sweden. Previously, a higher proportion of government funding went directly to higher education institutions, but now a larger share will be distributed via the central government research funding bodies. The difference is significant and Uppsala University must take it on board. 

Competition will increase. Consequently, we will need to submit more applications and become even more active in formulating research projects. We know from experience that Uppsala University does as well as and sometimes better than other universities out of interdisciplinary applications to Formas, for example, but that our share of applications is lower than that of other Swedish higher education institutions. We need to change this and as many of you are aware, the UUniFI initiative is designed to play a part in this. Another important initiative is that we have a new research support organisation. Since the beginning of the year, there is a new head of division – Johan Kreuger – in charge of what is now the Division for Research and Partnership Support. The division has a major and important mission: together with research support services in the disciplinary domains, it will provide support and advice to researchers in formulating applications that can obtain funding. In this connection, we need to address another challenge. 

Compared with other universities, our share of articles in the top ten per cent most cited is falling. This affects our status as a higher education institution internationally. We need to improve and find strategies to reverse this trend. 

Every year at the University, we have an event we call Grants Day. At the most recent I talked about my own experience of serving on committees processing applications. As I said then, the process is efficient and experienced evaluators often only need a few minutes to determine whether an application is interesting. In my experience, a good application has a clear idea; the applicant gets to the point quickly; a good application shows self-confidence. If you apply without success but still believe in your idea – apply again and learn from the comments you receive. Perhaps you were too long-winded, perhaps you need to change your angle.

Take advantage of your colleagues’ experiences, ask for help, use the support that is available at the University. 

On Grants Day, I summarised my experiences in a list of tips: 

  • Find your passion
  • Talk about your ideas with people you trust
  • Write applications
  • Learn from the feedback you get
  • Apply again
  • And again
  • Every ‘no ‘is just a station on the road to a ‘yes’.

I don’t know if my advice is of any use to you, but I do want to emphasise one point: the research bill puts us in a situation where the University’s researchers need to put themselves forward. We will do it well and the University will also develop in the process. My hope is that we will work more in projects that exploit the breadth that is unique to Uppsala University. If we do this, the new model introduced by the research bill will be very much to our advantage.