Report:9e58f6db-c42c-4b5d-9f49-c97dc532ac58

Facts & Figures

Sweden

Where

• Sweden

Research infrastructure

In 2019, there were 91,172 full-time researchers in Sweden (1). Sweden has 48 higher education and research institutions of four different categories: 17 universities, 13 university colleges, 5 university colleges of fine, applied and performing arts, and 13 other independent higher education providers (2).

Research funding

In Sweden, intramural R&D expenditure amounted to SEK 171.1 billion in 2019 €16.8 billion, which comprises 3.41 % of the country’s GDP (1). The business enterprise sector is the largest sector for R&D and accounts for almost 72 percent of all expenditure, while the government sector and the higher education sector account for 4.5 percent and 23.7 percent respectively. The private non-profit sector only accounts for 0.12 percent of the expenditure (1).

Sweden had 3.325 signed grants receiving €2.25 billion and 289 ERC grants receiving €457.6 million (3).

Research strategy

This national strategy aims to strengthen the long-term competitiveness of Sweden as a life sciences nation. It aims to create a functional ecosystem and the best conditions for life sciences. The strategy will provide the conditions for improved health by increasing innovation and advancing health and social care, making Swedish strengths visible globally. This roadmap will serve as a basis for discussion and support in this goal. It highlights three priorities of Sweden’s life sciences sector and high-quality, equitable, gender-equal and efficient health care (4).

Research governance, compliance and integrity

In recent years Sweden’s institutional structure regarding research ethics and research integrity has been centralized. The National Board for Assessment of Research Misconduct is a new Swedish governmental agency formed January 1 2020. The Board took over the responsibilities of dealing with the cases of research misconduct from the Swedish HEI. Decisions by the Board are published regularly on their website in Swedish and can be appealed to the Administrative Court in Uppsala (5). The responsibility of dealing with deviations from good research practice still lies with the HEI, but The Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions (SUHF) has published recommendation on how to deal with allegations of deviations from good research practice (6).

The Swedish Ethical Review Authority, previously known as the Ethics Review Board, is a public agency under the Ministry of Education. It has replaced the regional ethical review committees in their responsibilities of providing ethics review and advice regarding research with humans (7). In case when the Swedish Ethical Review Authority evaluates unfavourably applications for ethics review of research on humans, biological material and sensitive personal data, research principals can appeal that decision at the Swedish Ethics Review Appeals Board (ÖNEP) (8), an independent statutory body under the Department of Education (9). The ÖNEP is also responsible for the supervision of the observance of the Ethical Review Act and regulations supported by the law. Apart from that, it issues ethical guidelines and laws that regulate and place ethical demands on research (8).

The Swedish Research Council, Sweden’s largest governmental research funding body, publish “good research practice” that gives an overview of research ethics and includes recommendation on good research practice. Researcher applying for funding are asked to include a discussion of the ethical aspects of their proposed research project in their application (9).

Sweden does not have a national code for research integrity, which has resulted in different terminologies on research misconduct as well as different procedures for handling research misconduct cases within local research institutions in the past. The Swedish Research Council has its own ethical guidelines and internal Expert Group on Ethics (9) which has published the book Good Research Practice intended primarily for researchers (10). Research integrity is a mandatory part of the curriculum for PhD students (11).

Clinical trials involving medicines and medical devices must be approved by the Medical products Agency (12). The Agency's task is to ensure that both the individual patient and healthcare professionals have access to safe and effective medicinal products and that these are used in a rational and cost-effective manner (13).

Bodies for RE+RI	Scope
The National Board for Assessment of Research Misconduct	Investigates research misconduct, cases that previously were handled by the Swedish universities.
The Swedish Ethical Review Authority	Examines applications for ethics review of research involving humans and human biological material.
Ethical Review Appeals Board	Responsible for those applications evaluated as unfavourable by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority. It also has some responsibilities for the supervision of the observance of the Ethical Review Act and regulations supported by the law. Apart from that, it issues ethical guidelines and laws that regulate and place ethical demands on research.
Swedish Research Council	Publish “good research practice” that gives an overview of research ethics and includes recommendation on good research practice. Researcher applying for funding are asked to include a discussion of the ethical aspects of their proposed research project.

Laws and regulations

A number of laws regarding RE and RI are officially instated in Sweden.

Law	Scope
Ordinance No. 615 Concerning the Ethical Vetting of Research Involving Humans (2003)	Protects the human dignity in research. The law provides for the ethical review of research  involving human beings and biological material from humans.
Regulation (2007:1069) With Instruction For Regional Ethical Review Boards	Established regional ethics review boards with the purpose of examining applications for ethical review under the Act (SFS 2003:460) if the ethical review of research involving humans.
The Personal Data Act	Protects people against the violation of their personal integrity by processing of personal data.
The Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act	Contains provisions that supplement the provisions contained in the Freedom of the Press Act on the right to obtain official documents, for example provisions on the obligation of public authorities to register official documents, appeals against decisions of authorities, etc.
The Patient Data Act	Contains rules on the handling of personal data in the health and social care system.
The Higher Education ordinance	Contains regulations concerning higher education institutions for which the Government is the accountable authority.
Act on responsibility for good research practice and the examination of research misconduct (2019:504)	Contains provisions on the responsibility of conducting research in accordance with good research practice as well as provisions on the procedure for examining issues related to research misconduct.

Measures to promote good scientific practices and open science

RI training

Some universities have special bodies that are responsible for the training and education in the field of ethics (e.g. at the University of Stockholm this is done by Ethics Council) (14). Also, the Swedish National Data Service organises seminars, workshops, conferences, discussion forums and training events on data management, open access and laws and regulations, while the National Quality Registers at the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, Regional Register Centres and related stakeholders organise courses and conferences on Swedish national quality registers from a healthcare and research perspective (15).

The main resources for RE+RI training are:

-       CODEX – Rules and Guidelines for Research

-       Good Research Practice by the Swedish Research Council

-       The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity

RI dialogue and communication

The HEI in Sweden are all tasked to share and communicate their science and knowledge to the community. Many HEI organises different festivals, conferences and/or activities as part of this task. This also provide transparency and openness. Two examples of such arrangements are:

The International Science Festival in Gothenburg is one of the most popular science festivals in Europe and the only one of its kind in Sweden. The aim of the Science Festival is to communicate science to schools and the general public and provide a meeting place for the research community. The goal is to provide more knowledge and positive attitude to science and research, as well as to encourage people to engage in higher education studies (16).

SciFest at the University of Uppsala organised for teachers, students, researchers and representatives from companies. The festival is composed as a three-day educational experience with interactive demonstrations, various activities, and shows. It aims to bring closer science and the general public (17). Research integrity is occasionally discussed in the lay press. It is mostly related to cases of research misconduct (18,19).

RI incentives

Sweden offers awards and prizes to researchers.

Guidelines

Sweden

A total of 3 guidelines were found. Add a Guideline.

• Swedish Research Council's Guidelines on Good Research Practice (January 2022)
• Swedish Research Council's Conflict of Interest Policy (January 2022)
• Strategy for Gender Equality at the Swedish Research Council (January 2022)

Andrijana Perković Paloš, Elsa Amin contributed to this report. Latest contribution was Oct 22, 2021