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conferences abroad, and many international scientific meetings are held in the country.
Sweden has numerous agreements for scientific and technical cooperation with Western and Communist countries. In 1967 the French initiated the formation of a Swedish-French Research Association as a means of furthering scientific contacts between the two countries. Several scientific agreements have been signed with the U.S.S.R.; in January 1970 Sweden and the U.S.S.R. signed an agreement relating to economic and technological-scientific cooperation. The agreement covered such areas as construction, shipbuilding, electrical equipment, transportation, and forestry, and provided for an increased exchange of researchers and scientific information. Individual agreements were signed with Hungary in 1969. Cooperation among the Scandinavian countries in all matters has been a long-standing tradition and is promoted by the Nordic Council, Nordic Cultural Commission, and the Scandinavian Council for Applied Research. One of the principal fields of cooperation is the peaceful use of atomic energy. As a result of action taken by the Nordic Council's Cultural Committee, the Nordic Institute of Theoretical Atomic Physics (NORDITA) was established in Copenhagen. Swedish scientists have participated in important fundamental research conducted at NORDITA.
Sweden was one of the first countries to use special attaches to follow scientific activities in other countries and has such positions in Washington, Paris, Moscow, Tokyo, and Frankfurt.
B. Organization, planning, and financing of research (S)
Research organization and guidance in Sweden, although diversified and decentralized, are effective. Government research councils, industrial research councils, and the universities and learned societies closely coordinate the scientific effort so that efficient use is made of the limited number of trained researchers and limited financial resources (Figure 1). Four types of organizations guide and coordinate research: 1) the research councils and research boards, operating under relevant ministries, which guide certain fields of research and allot government funds; 2) the ministries of the government, which oversee state research installations; 3) the scientific academies, which operate on government and private contributions; and 4) groups of scientists and industrialists, which often operate with some state aid.
The research councils are important government agencies which supervise and finance research. The councils usually have eight to 12 member and act as advisory agencies to the government on matters of science policy in their fields. The specific aims of each council are to oversee the research in its field, to initiate and review proposed projects, and to promote needed research by allocating government grants. The Ministry of Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs directs most of the important research councils, which are the Atomic Research Council, the Natural Science Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the Social Sciences Research Council, and the Humanistic Research Council. The Ministry of Agriculture has the Agricultural and Forestry Research Council subordinate to it. The Building Research Council is under the Ministry of the Interior.
An increasingly important agency for industrially oriented research is the Board for Technical Development (STU), established in June 1968. The STU is subordinate to the Ministry of Industrial Affairs and is concerned mainly with the support of applied research, the industrial exploitation of research results, and the adaptation of innovations to the needs of society. It also supports basic research insofar as it advances technological development. The STU essentially replaced and absorbed the functions of the following organizations: the Technical Research Council, which made grants for applied research, mainly to individuals; the Foundation for the Exploitation of Research Results (EFOR) which aided researchers and inventors in securing industrial support; the Institute for the Utilization of Research Results (INFOR), which provided financial support to industry for undertaking development of promising new methods and products; the Iron Ore Foundation (Malmfonden), which supported relatively large development projects, using funds (about US$2 million annually) received from the government-owned iron-ore mining company in Kiruna; and the Swedish Inventor's Office, which assisted inventors in patenting their discoveries and in making contact with industry. The STU supports the Scandinavian Council for Applied Research and directs the Council for Scientific Information and Documentation.
The Ministry of Defense directs one of the largest government scientific research groups in Sweden, the Defense Research Institute (FOA), Stockholm. It is supported by and serves the three armed services. The FOA coordinates the basic and much of the applied research effort of the entire military establishment and conducts research in its four departments, two divisions, and one laboratory: Department for
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