The budget of the outgoing Solberg government has received much criticism in the research sector. ‘We’re worried because the sector will quite simply lose out,’ says Guro Elisabeth Lind, head of the Norwegian Association of Researchers. She points out that the state budget has an overall growth of 2.3% while that of the university and college sector is only increasing by 1.5%.
Funds have been cut by NOK 1.7 billion over the last five years, says Research Council director Mari Sundli Tveit. ‘If we don’t get the growth we need, then we’ll be forced to announce a drop in funds. It’s a very worrying situation.’
