R&D in government agencies

Government agencies’ financing of intramural R&D contributed 48 percent of all available funds in the government sector. In 2017, total expenditure on intramural R&D was SEK 2.7 billion, which is an increase of 9 percent in fixed prices compared with 2015. Government agencies can be divided into civil agencies and defence agencies. In this context, the Swedish Defence Research Agency, the Swedish Armed Forces, the Swedish Defence Material Administration and the Swedish Fortifications Agency are refered to as defence agencies. Civil and defence agencies increased intramural expenditure by 7 percent and 11 percent respectively since the previous survey. The defence agencies’ share of total intramural spending by government agencies increased by 1 percentage point compared with 2015 to 51 percent of total spending in fixed prices.

FTEs performed by government agencies decreased compared with 2015. This decrease was concentrated to the civil agencies and was larger for men than for women. The number of FTEs decrease by 14 percent in civil agencies, while the number of R&D-related FTEs in defence agencies increased by 8 percent. In 2017, the share of FTEs carried out by women compared to men increased among civil agencies from 47 percent to 50 percent, but remained unchanged at 27 percent among defence agencies.

R&D in counties, municipalities and local and regional R&D units

A large share of R&D carried out in counties is financed by ALF recsouces. ALF (Agreement for Medical Training and Research) refers to an agreement on compensation that central government issues to certain county councils to cover the majority of costs incurred by clinical training and research. ALF resources are also reported in the R&D survey in the universities and institutions of higher learning sector and are excluded from the total expenditure in the government sector.

In 2017, the counties’ share of total expenditure on intramural R&D in the government sector was 45 percent and amounted to SEK 2.5 billion, an increase of 23 percent in fixed prices. Almost all resources provided by the counties were spent in the health and medical care sector.

Municipalities increased intramural R&D expenditure in 2017 by 120 percent in fixed prices compared with 2015. Many municipalities increased spending and many municipalities that did not report any intramural R&D at all in 2015 did so in 2017.

Local and regional R&D units decreased intramural R&D expenditure in 2017 by SEK 33 million, down by 17 percent.

There were 2 275 FTEs generated by county personnel. FTEs occupied by women amounted to 1 397, an increase of 61 percent compared with 2015. FTEs occupied by men also increased, by 21 percent, compared with the previous survey.

In municipalities, the total number of FTEs increased by 54 percent compared with 2015. The number of FTEs occupied by women increased by 59 percent, while FTEs occupied by men increased by 45 percent compared with the last survey.

The number of intramural R&D FTEs in local and regional R&D units decreased by 11 percent from 2015 to 2017. The largest decrease, 32 percent, was among FTEs occupied by men, while FTEs occupied by women decreased by 6 percent compared with 2015.