Stiftelsen Lantbruksforskning (SLF) – The Swedish Farmers’ Foundation for Agricultural Research – is the Swedish agricultural industry’s organization for funding of research and development. The purpose of the foundation is to strengthen the competitive ability of Swedish agriculture.
Research is important for development
Consumers show an increasing interest in both environmental and ethical aspects of product quality and in the production of foodstuffs. Swedish agriculture faces the challenge of maintaining a balance between increasing its efficiency per unit (i.e. per hectare or per animal) and at the same time meeting society’s demand for improvements in product quality. Consumers are also demanding that environmental and ethical considerations are taken during the production process. All of the above requires research and development. In addition, it is important that Sweden maintains and develops scientific expertise in order to participate in international exchange of knowledge.
Swedish agriculture invests in research
The agricultural industry has created its own voluntary system for funding research associated with agriculture. The aim is not only to strengthen its development into the world’s cleanest agricultural system and to create confidence among consumers, but also to fill the gap that arose when the previous control system was dismantled. The voluntary system was introduced in 1996 and aims to fund research that is important for on-farm production and that will lead to results that are applicable on the farm in the long or short term. The system is based on both agricultural cooperatives and private companies collecting funds from farmers by a percentage tariff placed on the selling price. The funds are collected within each individual area of production. For example, funds collected from milk suppliers (0.031 SEK per kg milk) are earmarked for use in research on dairy production, while funds originating from grain production (0.3% of the selling price) are used in research on plant production. Projects involving several areas of production are coordinated by SLF.
Furthermore, funds originating from ‘green’ taxes on products such as inorganic nitrogen, cadmium in phosphorus fertilizers and pesticides are returned to the agricultural sector in order to fund research. These funds have led to research programmes within SLF relating to sustainable agriculture in various areas.
Evaluation process for research projects
Research programme
Since the farmers are financing the research it is of great importance that they are involved in the process of identifying valuable research for agriculture. Most programmes are funded through a three year agreement with the financing companies and/or organizations. The formulation of a research programme is done in collaboration with the financing organizations. The research programmes are used as guidelines for the research applicants and are advertised on www.lantbruksforskning.se, in magazines and through communication channels at the universities. Occasionally, when a certain need for research within an area has been identified, research projects can be initiated through discussions between representatives from the university and industry experts in the specific sector. Dates for applications are February 1st and October 1st every year. New projects are concentrated mainly to October 1st application date.
Planning and evaluation committees
Every research programme has its own committee that evaluates research applications and has the responsibility of making the correct decisions. This evaluation process is unique for SLF, in comparison to other foundations. Today SLF has 15 evaluation committees with 6 to 10 committee members. The members of the committees represent the specific agricultural sector that the research programme manages or are scientists with a profile valuable for the specific field. In total about 130 board members are involved in SLF evaluation system today.
Method of evaluation
Defined quality criteria are used as a support for evaluation. Every committee member has the responsibility to read and evaluate every project application. One committee member, however, has a more specific responsibility for a handful of projects and therefore has to read and make a thorough judgement on these projects.
SLF distributes the projects between the members of the evaluation committees and decides who is to be made responsible for which project. Before deciding who is suitable to be responsible for the evaluation of a project, SLF evaluates that members specific knowledge in the subject and makes sure there are no conflicts of interest to take into account. The board members have a personal responsibility to report any situations when they feel that there might be a conflict of interest, for example they are required to report any kinship to an applicant or if they have a professional relation to an applicant.
During the evaluation meeting, the opinions of all committee members are taken into account, with special weight being given to the member responsible for the project. Projects are prioritized based on how relevant the results would be for the specific agricultural sector. The projects that are most relevant for the specific area of production are given priority. Each project is also weighted based on the quality criteria. Decisions are taken during the evaluation meetings using the priority list as a guideline.
Granted project
The projects are financed for at the most three years and it is a requirement that the results for each year are reported before the following year is financed. Sometimes the evaluation board demands that particular conditions are fulfilled until the project will be funded. SLF ensures that the particular conditions have been met before funding is given.
Final report
All projects have to be reported by the deadline given at the time of application. In some cases the deadline for the report is prolonged after a written motivation from the project leader is received and approved by SLF. The final report is evaluated and approved by the evaluation committee before the final money (50 000 SEK) is paid. A new rule that was initiated October 1st 2008, is that it is not possible for a scientist to receive money for a new project unless prior projects are reported before the deadline expires.
Communication of research results
SLF puts much effort into communication of research results. It is very important that the research result becomes readily available for the farmers that have financed the projects. It is required that every project has a plan for how to communicate their results to the end user, on top of that there is a communications department within SLF that work to spread information about research results. More information is found on the SLF website www.lantbruksforskning.se and www.loftinfo.se.