In 2019, a new national Ethics Review Authority (Etikprövningsmyndigheten, EPM) was created in Sweden. In 2020, Sweden's "Ethical Review of Research Involving Humans Act" was revised, tightening this legislation, and increasing penalties for its infraction. This article draws on empirical material generated by artistic research conducted…

Practice-near research has been on the agenda in education policy during the last few years in Sweden. The research is supposed to make the academy and school collaborate and the expectations are high. This article aims to give an account of different kinds of expectations of practice-near research, and the underlying perceived problems it is…

This paper focuses on how contributions are argued in research proposals in the humanities. Due to standardizing tendencies in research funding towards formats characteristic of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects, there has been concern that the humanities are marginalized. In this study, 'contribution statements'…

As concerns about sexual and reproductive health and rights become integrated into public health policies, the demand for higher education in sexology rises. There is a need therefore to evaluate established pedagogical methods to ensure that they are relevant, efficient and lead to valuable competencies. This study explored the current evidence…

Energy efficiency is identified as a vital area for addressing sustainability challenges of our time. Governments throughout the world invest vast amounts of resources in research, for advancing knowledge on energy efficiency, and for fostering innovations that can support a transition towards a more sustainable energy system. Evaluation can be an…

The article is an exploratory study assessing the stance selected higher education institutes (HEIs) have adopted regarding the usage of generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications in academic research. The HEIs are selected based on purposive sampling in order to showcase different stances they have adopted to curb plagiarism and uphold…

The study presented here identifies robust and time-invariant features that characterise dynamic and innovative research environments. It takes as its point of departure the results of an empirical study conducted in 2002 which identified the common characteristics of 15 dynamic and innovative public research environments, and focusses on their…

Universities engage in international collaboration for a number of reasons. In the global North, which is characterised by wealth and power, universities increasingly use international collaboration for competitiveness and marketisation. In contrast, the global South engages in collaboration to strengthen research and build knowledge capacity.…

More than resource allocations, evaluations of funding applications have become central instances for status bestowal in academia. Much attention in past literature has been devoted to grasping the status consequences of prominent funding evaluations. But little attention has been paid to understanding how the status-bestowing momentum of such…

This study investigates the relationship between resource concentration/stability and new results/breakthroughs in the context of a Swedish Center of Excellence (CoE) scheme. A common assumption in using the CoE instrument is that there is a scale return to research on concentration of funds. However, the details of how funding connects to such…

Previous research has identified political ideology as central in the landmark Academies Act (2010). This article further analyses how politics of evidence played its part in the policy process by focusing on long-term structural changes and preferences among policymakers. The article draws on policymaker interviews after the reform, a mapping of…

Systematic reporting of cultural variables in research publications is important to address disparities in diagnostics and treatment for children with ASD from diverse backgrounds. The present review examined reporting of cultural factors in ASD publications in the Swedish research context by using the GAP-REACH checklist developed by the Cultural…

Swedish universities and colleges have received a substantial funding increase since the turn of the millennium, as part of continued policies of expanding the admission of students to higher education to broader layers of the population and strengthen Swedish public research and development to increase the competitiveness of the Swedish…

This article provides an account of the making of KBLab, the data lab at the National Library of Sweden (KB). The first part discusses the work involved in establishing a lab as both a physical and a digital site for researchers to use digital collections at previously unimaginable scales. The second part explains how the lab has deployed the…

Higher music education (HME) in Europe is multifaceted due to the great variety of legal frameworks, conservatory histories and practices. However, following the Bologna declaration in 1999, traditional conservatories are gradually transforming into research-based institutions, which means combining advanced performer training with artistic…