The goal of Forskerforbundet is a democratic and sustainable welfare society, where research and knowledge are central building blocks in social development. Knowledge lays the foundation for a stable and democratic society. Research-based knowledge is crucial for the development of welfare services, good public administration and a future-oriented business sector. Investing in research is also an investment in social preparedness. Educational institutions and cultural institutions such as museums and libraries are important educational arenas that contribute to active and critically thinking citizens. It is therefore a goal to increase understanding of the importance of research, and to ensure good conditions for higher education, research and dissemination.
The UN's Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 highlight the need for holistic thinking and action in the face of societal challenges globally, nationally and locally. Researchers and knowledge workers must therefore contribute knowledge to societal development in line with the carrying capacity of nature and the earth. Researchers and knowledge workers have a particular responsibility to contribute to an enlightened public conversation by questioning established truths.
Priority 2025–2027
Forskerforbundet will work to ensure framework conditions that ensure breadth of research, ensure academic freedom, research-based higher education and knowledge-based public administration and contribute to long-term thinking, stability and quality in the entire knowledge sector. |
Increased research efforts
Stable and long-term framework conditions for research and development work are a necessary condition for research and innovation capacity. Forskerforbundet will work to strengthen national research efforts and ensure a good balance between basic research and applied research. Increased research efforts and improved framework conditions shall encompass the entire research-performing sector. Digital solutions and new technology intervene in and change both the work tasks and the way knowledge workers work. In order to benefit from the new opportunities this opens up, businesses must be provided with resources for infrastructure, user-driven service development and training in new technology.
International cooperation
International knowledge cooperation is absolutely central to research and higher education. Internationalization has been crucial for building leading knowledge environments and solving global challenges. Forskerforbundet works for a strengthened international educational and research collaboration.
Academic freedom
The knowledge sector should be a sector where opinions are exchanged within the framework of a good and open climate for expression. Trust in research depends on researchers having academic freedom, and on research results being continuously subject to critical scrutiny by other researchers. In an increasing number of countries, research is considered so threatening that academic freedom is being restricted, and individual researchers feel gagged or persecuted. In Norway too, there are tendencies and trends that are putting academic freedom in research and higher education under pressure. Forskerforbundet works to ensure academic freedom in research and higher education, and believes that academic freedom must be enshrined in the constitution. Academic freedom, research quality and employees' copyrights must be safeguarded in the transition to open science.
Education quality
Research-based teaching, academic breadth and long-term and stable funding are crucial for the quality of higher education. Forskerforbundet will work for management systems and funding schemes that take care of all these aspects. An increasingly diverse student population as well as demands and expectations for more flexible education, require a strong focus on both infrastructure and human resources. The institutions' administration has a central role in facilitating students and academic activity. Forskerforbundet will work to strengthen and further develop professional academic support. The institutions must be provided with sufficient resources so that employees can continuously develop high-quality teaching.
Equal access to education must remain a fundamental principle in Norwegian higher education. Forskerforbundet will work towards a system of student financing that makes it possible for students to study full-time, and that gives those who complete higher education the right to write off part of their student loans.