06-05-2025
Five things Sweden should do to attract foreign researchers
Sweden has launched a number of initiatives in recent months aimed at foreign researchers, but what do researchers themselves think Sweden should be doing to make the country a more attractive choice for academics?
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At the end of April, the Swedish government launched an inquiry into protecting academic freedoms in Sweden, and the Swedish Research Council announced a new grant for researchers based outside of Europe, running from April to December this year.
Education Minister Johan Pehrson also hosted a roundtable in April with the goal of discussing recruitment of students and researchers as well as the possible consequences US policy could have on international collaboration and academic freedom.
All of these measures are part of a long-term plan by the government to attract international scientists.
But who better to ask for advice than researchers already based in Sweden? The Local did, and here's what they said.
Think about the entire family, not just the researcher
'Make it easier for researchers to invite family for visits and stays,' wrote one researcher, doing a PhD in Computer Science at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. 'It gets incredibly lonely and we have to spend a lot of money to travel back home.'
The same researcher also wrote that Sweden should 'make the path to permanent residence and citizenship easy,' as well as increasing the stipend offered to researchers.
'Most researchers are at an age where they are married and have a family to support,' she said.
Another respondent who has worked in Stockholm for over a decade, including a stint as a researcher, said that it was difficult to bring over a spouse or family due to immigration requirements from the Migration Agency.
'A lack of affordable housing is one of the biggest problems, and lower salaries are high up there too. Those two factors go hand in hand,' he added.
He also said that the job market and language requirements are both issues for potential researchers looking to Sweden.
Loosen laws around permanent residency and citizenship
Khue Hua, a PhD researcher in Translational Vascular Research, also highlighted permits as a problem for international researchers.
'The permit system needs to be improved. My colleagues and I have been through too many problems with work permits, like the waiting times, and laws around permanent residency and citizenship getting stricter,' they said.
Another respondent, describing himself as 'a skilled immigrant', said that the government should not put skilled immigrants in the same basket as everyone else.
'Don't make one shoe fit all with respect to work permits or citizenship,' he added. 'Situations like [the bankruptcy of battery company] Northvolt should be identified in advance.'
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Don't focus on attracting more researchers when there are many in the country looking for work
Many respondents also called on the government to focus more on the researchers who are already in the country, rather than working to make more foreign researchers uproot their lives to move over.
'Give those who are already in Sweden a chance,' wrote Ranjit, who isn't a researcher himself, although his spouse holds a dual master's from Karolinska and Dalarna.
'I know so many qualified dependent spouses who have been trying for years to get into research. But even after a master's (or two master's), they get nothing but rejections.'
'Your greatest flagbearer will always be someone who has made it through the process.'
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Will, a researcher within city planning, said that Sweden should work to provide a route into industry for academics with Swedish as a second language.
'I studied at SIFA, which is designed to do just that, but there's no accountability or genuine desire to help academics enter the job market,' he wrote.
'Academic work is also unstable. The law that prevents you from having a short term contract for more than a year at a given institution has actually led to me being unemployed, when there was in fact work I could have done at the university I was based at if this law was not in place.'
Do more to integrate foreign researchers and make them feel welcome
A female lecturer from Lund University also highlighted problems with integrating foreign researchers.
'Sweden brings in foreign researchers on short grants and does not do anything to ensure that these researchers feel integrated,' she wrote.
'Most academic institutions have their committees fully in Swedish, most academic institutions' HR departments do not know how to inform foreign researchers, enabling a social environment in academic settings is not much of a thing, and Swedish universities almost always favour Swedish academics over foreign academics for permanent positions.'
'Internationalisation for real and not just as a marketing tactic is what Sweden needs. People move their homes and families only to be laid off after three to four years unless they can secure funding themselves. Without knowing the ins and outs of funding agencies, this proves to just be a matter of luck.'
A PhD candidate from Bangladesh who was originally drawn to Sweden after seeing that the country had many collaborations with Bangladeshi research institutions said she felt like she was 'fighting with Sweden to stay'.
'It feels like Sweden just doesn't want me to stay. In the academic field it is not that easy to get a job so quickly just after your PhD, especially if it has to be long-term. If foreign researchers don't feel welcomed, and don't feel that they can settle in Sweden to advance in their career, why should they choose Sweden?'
She felt that other countries such as Germany, Australia or Canada are more open to foreigners, making it easier for them to settle down, progress in their careers and do better research.
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Get better at communicating some of the good things about doing research in Sweden
Although the respondents to our survey highlighted a number of areas where there was room for improvement, we also asked them about some of the benefits of working as a researcher in Sweden.
'Universities do not take equity in commercial spin-outs from research and development, unlike almost every other country,' an American respondent based in Stockholm wrote.
'Sweden should do more to market this.'
Fadhil, a PhD student in Economics from Indonesia, wrote that the availability of funding opportunities is 'incredible', while also praising Swedish academia for its 'egalitarian research environment that fosters innovation and critical thinking'.
A postdoc at Karolinska Institutet said that Sweden's work/life balance was a major plus point.
'This is particularly important for mid-career researchers who may be balancing family priorities at the same time that publication pressure and meeting academic milestones is the most intense,' she said.
'A concrete example is that major grant agencies like the Swedish Research Council allow you to indicate time spent on parental leave so that this is accounted for when they assess your CV and the amount of publications/milestones achieved in a certain time frame (i.e. you are not penalised for being less academically productive during the years when you have young children). This is especially meaningful for women researchers.'
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She also added that communication around lower salaries could be better.
'Salaries are lower in Sweden than the US, but Americans may not understand that living in Sweden you have far fewer expenses (like health insurance, childcare, etc) so at the end of the day the amount of spending money is roughly the same. Sweden could do better to communicate that the seemingly lower salary is not as much of a trade-off as it appears.'
Another respondent, who previously worked as an environmental science postdoc researcher at SLU, said that early-career research grants were a big plus of the Swedish system.
'[The grants] are structured according to how many years past your PhD you are (i.e., some grants for those seven years after PhD, then others for 7-15 years past, etc). These can foster independent research and career development much earlier than in other countries, although they are fiercely competitive,' he said.
He also said that the strong social security and strong unions are an advantage, although this only applies to salaried positions.
'Some postdoc positions are paid by stipends, rather than proper salaries, and these positions have almost no social security – it is important to check this when applying or accepting a postdoc position in Sweden. But if you have a proper salaried position (as I did), you are eligible for unemployment insurance (providing you pay into A-kassa and the union for at least one year), and you get an allowance for sport-related activities, generous annual leave, and various workplaces insurances.'
