A new article about the consequences of cuts to funding for development research one year after they happened was published in the newspaper Curie on 12 June 2024
Photo: Unsplash / Paul Skorupskas
A new article by Charlie Olofsson about the consequences of cuts to funding for development research one year after they happened was published in the newspaper Curie on 12 June 2024. The article highlights that the cuts in targeted funding for development research have made it difficult to find research funding and that the field is shrinking as researchers shift away from development to other topics.
Citing results from the recent SweDev report on the consequences of funding for development research, as well as comments from SweDev’s Janet Vähämäki, the article highlights that there have been fewer applications for development research received by the Swedish Research council. Janet Vähämäki reflects: “We simply see that researchers are fleeing the field, that is, they are conducting less research in developing countries and researching issues related to global development”.
More broadly, the article highlights the negative effects of the funding cuts for the kind interdisciplinary research that is often development-focused. It also discusses the negative implications for Sweden’s reputation as a leading research nation and the response of the political opposition in the Swedish parliament to the cuts in funding. Particularly in the context of health, the article highlights that there are good reasons to invest more in research collaborations on diseases that are primarily associated with the global south as these are likely to become more prominent in Sweden. To conclude, the article highlights the call for targeted funding for development research.