Sustainable funding? How funding agencies frame science for sustainable development

This article explores how research funding agencies have responded to the challenge of operationalising the policy agenda of sustainable development. Drawing on the results of a research project studying Swedish funding agencies’ policy declarations, mandates and priorities as well as abstracts from funded projects, we analyse how the research domains of sustainable development are defined as well as what type of research projects they support.The article discusses consequences for the internationally emerging field of science for sustainable development. We conclude that even though economic and social aspects have been increasingly recognised, agencies predominantly emphasise the environmental dimension of sustainable development. The agencies characterise environmental research in terms of basic research and sustainable development research as applied. As a consequence, sustainable development research has become heavily oriented towards implementing the dominant political agenda. Such short-term political utility is interpreted by the funding agencies as applied research. A worrying consequence is that many fundamental questions posed within the area of sustainable development receive little or no attention in the funding agencies’ priorities. Such neglected research domains include those that posit alternative framings, identify potential problems and reflect on implications of current sustainable development policy.