Highlights

Sweden slashes research aid budget

Sweden's development agency will cut its research and development budget by 20 per cent
in 2010 as a result of the financial crisis, SciDev.Net can reveal. The Swedish International
Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) is planning to reduce its 2010 budget for 'research
cooperation with developing countries' from an estimated 1.05 billion kronor (US$148 million)
to 800 million kronor (US$112 million). The cut is because of a general decline in Sweden's
budget for development aid, the full extent of which will be clear once the country's 2010/11
budget - to be presented by the government in September or October - is signed off in
December.

The preliminary figures have forced SIDA to make some difficult choices, says Tomas
Kjellqvist, who heads the organisation's secretariat for research cooperation. SIDA will
attempt to maintain its bilateral R&D support with its partner countries and is planning only
minimal cuts - from US$49 million to US$44 million - for this part of its budget. But other
budgets will be hit hard. "Latin America is a region that the Swedish government essentially
wants to pull out of," says Kjellqvist. "Our support there will decrease from US$8.5 million to
US$1.5 million by 2011."
In Africa, funding for pan-African R&D capacity building through organisations such as the
Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) will be cut
from a planned US$24.6 million to US$14 million. "It's disappointing that this comes at a time
when Africa's regional organisations are mobilising to strengthen research and higher
education," says Kjellqvist. His regret is echoed on the African continent. "This is bad news
- SIDA is one of the funders that has supported African science for a long time," says
Christoff Pauw, coordinator of the Initiatives in the South from the division of research
development at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
Swedish researchers working on development issues will also feel the pinch. In 2010, SIDA
will cut support for their projects from an estimated US$21 million to US$11 million, of which
US$5.6 million is already tied up in existing projects. "That would not be so bad if we hadn't
recently called for proposals from larger research groups and promised bigger grants," said
Kjellqvist. He added that as a result of these cuts, success rates for grant proposals are likely
to plummet from 15-20 per cent to five per cent.
Funding will also be curtailed for global organisations, including the WHO and the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Kjellqvist says that the
latter is in need of SIDA funding right now, as it is undergoing a structural reform. SIDA is not
the first funder to cut back as a result of the global financial crisis. Earlier this year, the
Wellcome Trust, a UK medical research charity, announced it would cut its funding for
2008/09 by £30 million (US$49 million) after its endowment declined by US$3.3 billion
Source: SciDev.Net Weekly Update (24 August - 1 September 2009)