The world-wide trend to reduce public expenditures has made the question of privatization of research increasingly actual in many countries. Such privatization can take place by increased private involvement in the ownership of research organizations, in research funding, and in decision-making on research activities. In this paper, a theoretical framework for research investment and theoretical criteria for public and private involvement in forest sector research are presented. Then, some of the theoretical aspects are discussed in the light of a survey of private and public forest sector research in Europe, and case studies on the impact of changing levels and patterns of funding on research activities in the forest sectors of Finland and Norway. According to economic theory, there exist several reasons to expect public funding to dominate in forestry research. This was also empirically confirmed: when research conducted in individual firms is excluded, only nine percent of European forest sector research is conducted at private organizations. Within slightly different science policy frames, both Finland and Norway have promoted increasing private involvement in forest sector research. Owing to such policies, a major challenge for research in the forest sector of Finland has become maintaining the present intensity of research, and improving scientific competence by increasing post-graduate education, whereas in Norway, a major challenge is the maintenance of scientific competence through a sufficient level of basic and theoretical research. In addition, both countries have faced decreased freedom of research and an increase of short-term projects.
Keywords: forestry, forest industry, research, funding, privatization, Europe, Finland, Norway.
Correspondence: Eeva Hellström, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Helsinki Research Centre, Unioninkatu 40 A, FIN-00170 Helsinki, Finland
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