This is how our work is directed

The Swedish Research Council Formas is a national research council that comes under the Ministry of the Environment. This means that Formas receives most of its financial allocation from this ministry. The rest of the allocation comes from the Ministry of Agriculture.

The mission of Formas is to promote and support basic research and need-driven research in the areas Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning. The research supported should be of highest scientific quality and of relevance to the areas of responsibility of the Council. Formas may also fund development projects to a limited extent.

The work of Formas is directed both by a General Instruction (in Swedish only) drawn up by the Ministry of Environment and two Apppropriation Directives (in Swedish only) one from the Ministry of the Environment and one from the Ministry of Agriculture.

The Appropriation Directives set out the tasks which the Government entrusts to Formas. Reports on the progress of work on these tasks are continually submitted to the Government in the form of evaluations, state of the art, research strategies and research programmes. The work of Formas extends over three areas, support for research, strategy and analysis and research information. The result of the work is presented in Formas' annual report.