Decision on new resource allocation model for research grants

The new model aims to be simple, transparent and predictable. It will also strengthen opportunities for tying research to education and disincentivise the saving of grant money. More funding will now be channelled direct to the core activities and all departments will have more resources. The new model will also contribute to sustainable and future-proofed finances, which is one of KI’s nine focus areas intended to help KI attain the goals and vision laid out in Strategy 2030.

“Our current model has contributed to the accumulation of government-provided capital, partly due to its being considered precarious and short-term,” says KI President Annika Östman Wernerson. “With the new model more funding will be allocated to the departments. This means that spending will be prioritised to a greater extent by those with best knowledge of our core activities.”

The new model will be introduced successively over the coming years, this being the first stage of three. The next stages will involve reviewing the distribution of premises costs and the model used for the payment of performance-based research grants. These changes do not affect the education appropriation, since this grant has been reviewed relatively recently and is unencumbered by issues of capital accumulation.

“We’ll now start to take a collective look at the other parts of the resource distribution process while monitoring the outcome of this present modification in 2025,” says Professor Östman Wernerson. “The fact that we’re able to give all departments a greater share of the government allocation next year is a great benefit and we’ll have time for constructive dialogue going forward.”

Background 

In 2023, the KI university management began looking into what needed changing and developing to bring the organisation in line with the changing world, internal expectations and needs, and the visions and goals enshrined in Strategy 2030. Broad collaboration and constructive dialogue between managers, staff and students resulted in nine strategic focus areas, one of which was Sustainable and Future-Proofed Finances. 

The university management found that there was a strong internal desire for a review of the resource allocation model for research grants. In addition, in October 2023, the University Board tasked the president with producing a new resource allocation model in light of KI’s increasing government-provided capital.

There are several flaws in the current model. It was felt to be unnecessarily complicated, and its various modifications over the years have exacerbated its lack of clarity and disparities.

The work to draw up a proposal for a new resource allocation model began in 2024 under the leadership of Director of Planning Gunnar Gustafsson Wiss and head of the Financial Office Eva Tegelberg. The proposal has been adjusted in dialogue with the university’s deans, heads of department, academic vice presidents, administrative managers and others.

The new model: objectives and criteria

The new resource allocation model will mean

• a flat-rate payment for all departments 
• opportunities for improved planning and predictability
• better conditions for departments engaged in education
• day-to-day grant utilisation
• reduced government-provided capital 
• an opportunity for prioritisation/redistribution at departmental group level

The process will proceed in stages to make for a smoother transition. In the first years, the basic grant will be distributed direct to the departments, after which it will be distributed via the deans. All in all, the new model means that more funding will be allocated to core activities than previously, in part due to a reduction in the president’s allocation of approximately SEK 80 million, a sum that will be distributed instead closer to the core activities.

Recovery of unutilised funding

The model includes the recovery of unutilised government funding to the faculty board, the rationale being that this will incentivise the departments to utilise the funds allocated them. Any recovered monies will be redistributed by the faculty board via the current activity-based model. The recovery model will also be introduced gradually to give the departments time to adjust so that their activities and routines utilise government-provided capital more proactively.

The effects of the new model will be carefully monitored.

“The issue of resource allocation is a tricky one and there is no model that pleases everyone,” says Professor Östman Wernerson. “However, with this new model, we’ll be taking important steps towards the increasingly transparent, sustainable distribution of our resources. The model means that grant decisions will be made closer to the core activities, which also means that a greater responsibility must be taken by more people than is currently the case. I have full confidence that the organisation will handle this well.”

A three-stage process

The departmental managements have had a thorough run-through of the new model and what each department is estimated to receive as its flat rate over the coming years. However, as usual, budget decisions will not be taken until October, when the draft budget will give us a full picture of KI’s financial situation.

To sum up, the process will proceed in three stages:

1. The decision on a new resource allocation model for research grants was taken by the President on 30 August 2024. The model will be applied in 2025.
2. A review of premises and rental subsidies will commence in the autumn of 2024. A decision on amendments is expected around midsummer 2025, until which time the existing subsidies will remain in effect.
3. A review of the model for performance-based research grants (bibliometrics etc.) will probably commence at the end of 2024.