Large-scale Interdisciplinary Researcher Project

Approved Norwegian research organisations may apply. See here for the list of approved Norwegian research organisations. 

The topic Ground-breaking research is only open for applications from organisations on this list that are participating in Fellesløft IV, i.e. Norwegian universities, university colleges, research institutes and health trusts.

Requirements relating to the Project Owner
The research organisation listed as the Project Owner in the grant application must have approved the submission of the grant application to the Research Council.

Under the Fellesløft IV joint funding initiative, each applicant institution itself provides financing equivalent to half of the amount sought from the Research Council if the project is awarded funding. The management at each applicant institution must send a list to the Research Council (post@forskningsradet.no) no later than 17 February 2021 of the applications the institution has submitted for the Fellesløft IV initiative, i.e. applications targeting the topic Ground-breaking research. Institutions will be requested to withdraw any grant applications that are not included on these lists.

If you have only selected the topic Climate- and earth system, your application is not relevant to the Fellesløft IV initiative and does not need to be included on your institution's list.

If you believe your application to be relevant to more than one topic, you may select this in the application form.

Requirements relating to the project manager
You must have an approved doctorate or equivalent qualifications before the date of the application submission deadline.

If you do not have an approved doctorate but are qualified at associate professorship level or have current or previous employment in a position as forsker 1 (research professor), forsker 2 (senior researcher) or seniorforsker (senior researcher) in the institute sector or a health trust, you are also qualified.

You can only be the project manager for one application submitted for other calls with a deadline of either 10 or 17 February 2021. This limitation does not apply to Large-scale Interdisciplinary Researcher Projects. You can therefore be the project manager in two different applications for calls with these deadlines if one of the applications is for a Large-scale Interdisciplinary Researcher Project.

Requirements relating to partners
The project must have an interdisciplinary approach and incorporate collaboration between researchers from different subject fields. If this collaboration involves researchers at different institutions, the respective institutions must be listed as partners. Only approved Norwegian research organisations (see under ‘Who is eligible to apply?’ above) and corresponding research organisations in other countries are eligible to be partners and to receive Researcher Project funding.

Other types of organisations, such as companies and other undertakings, may not be project partners in Researcher Projects.

The Project Owner and/or project partners may hire providers of R&D services (sub-contractors) to carry out R&D services or contribute to individual tasks in the project.

Read more about project partners and R&D suppliers here.

See also our information about the state aid rules.

A project participant may not be assigned two different roles in the project. This means that a sub-contractor for the project may not have the role of Project Owner or partner in the same project.

You will find detailed and important information about what to enter in the project budget on our website.

You may seek funding to cover actual costs that are necessary to execute the project. The Project Owner is to obtain information about costs from each project partner. These costs are to be entered in the cost plan under the relevant category.

Support may be granted for the following costs:

• Payroll and indirect expenses, related to researcher time (including research fellowship positions) at the research organisations participating in the project. For doctoral and post-doctoral research fellowships, this funding is limited to maximum three person-years.
• Procurement of R&D services. The Project Owner and partners may purchase R&D-related services from public and private suppliers individually or together.
• Equipment. This encompasses operating and depreciation costs for scientific equipment and research infrastructure necessary for the execution of the project.
• Operating expenses, which comprise costs for other activities that are necessary to carry out R&D efforts under the project.

If the project includes doctoral and post-doctoral research fellowships and there are concrete plans in place for research stays abroad for the fellowship holders, the costs of such stays may be included in the grant application. The Research Council has also issued a separate call for funding for Research Stays Abroad for Doctoral and Post-doctoral Fellows. The project manager may seek funding under that call in the course of the project period for research stays abroad for research fellows affiliated to the project.

Scope of funding
You can apply for NOK 12–25 million in funding per project under this call.

If you select the topic Ground-breaking research, this amount (maximum NOK 25 million) includes both Research Council funding and the research institution’s own contribution under the Fellesløft IV joint funding initiative. This entire amount is to be entered in the field ‘The Research Council’ in the funding plan in the application form, and is to be distributed among the various budget items. Own financing in excess of the institution’s own contribution under the joint funding initiative is to be entered in the field ‘Own financing’ in the funding plan.

What can be included in the 50 per cent share of funding that the research institutions are to provide themselves under the Fellesløft IV joint funding initiative?

• R&D funding from the business sector, organisations and other external sources may be included, provided that this funding was not intended to be used in another research project.
• Funding from other research projects funded by the EU or the Research Council may not be included.
• Work contributions from staff in scientific positions in the university and university college sector or the research institute sector may be included, provided that the payroll costs for the work hours to be used in the Large-scale Interdisciplinary Researcher Project are not covered by funding from another research project (see points above).
• In-kind contributions from partners (i.e. work contributions or other services) may be included.

Conditions for funding
The researchers participating in the project must represent two or more different subject groups as defined at level 2 of the Norwegian Classification of Scientific Disciplines, drawn up by Universities Norway (UHR). 

The Research Council will not award support that constitutes state aid under this call. This means that the Research Council funding is only to go to the non-economic activity of the research organisations. We require a clear separation of accounts for the organisation’s economic and non-economic activities. Companies will not be eligible to receive support to cover projects costs and may not receive indirect support through the granting of any rights to project results.

The Research Council’s requirements relating to allocation and disbursement of support for the first year and any pledges and payments for subsequent years are set out in the General Terms and Conditions for R&D Projects.

The Project Owner (research organisation) is responsible for selecting which archiving solution(s) to use for storing research data generated during the project.

The Project Owner must specify the planned solution(s) in connection with the revised grant proposal.

Research results are to be made accessible through sharing and publication in line with the Research Council’s Policy on Open Science.

The Research Council stipulates special Requirements and guidelines for registration and disclosure of medical and health-related studies involving human participants.

Applications must be created and submitted via My RCN Web. You may revise and resubmit your grant application form multiple times up to the application submission deadline. We recommend that you submit your application as soon as you have filled in the application form and included all mandatory attachments. After the deadline, it is the most recently submitted version of the grant application that will be processed.

The application must meet the following requirements:

• The grant application and all attachments must be submitted in English, except for the description of relevance to the selected topic in the call, which may be submitted in Norwegian or English.
• All mandatory attachments must be included.
• Requirements relating to the project manager and Project Owner (research organisation) must be satisfied.
• The project must start between 1 July 2021 and 1 December 2021.
• Funding must be sought from the Research Council for 2021.

Applications that do not satisfy the requirements listed above may be rejected.

Mandatory attachments
The designated templates found at the end of the call for proposals (updated soon) must be used for all attachments.

• A project description, maximum 15 pages.
• A CV for the project manager, maximum four pages.
• CVs of key researchers participating in the interdisciplinary collaboration, not exceeding four pages each.
• If you select the topic Climate- and earth system, you must submit a description of the project application’s relevance to the topic. (To be uploaded under Attachments/Other items in the application form.)

Optional attachments

• Applicants are free to propose up to three referees who are presumed to be impartial and qualified to review the grant proposal.
• The Research Council is not under any obligation to use the proposed referees, but may use them as needed.

Attachments other than the mandatory and optional attachments specified above, as well as any links to websites in the grant application, will not be included in the application review process.

Grant applications will be assessed in relation to the following criteria:

See a detailed description of the processing procedure here. 

Preliminary administrative review
Applications that do not meet the formal requirements may be rejected.

Panel assessment
The applications are then assessed by referees, who later take part in a panel meeting and reach final consensus-based marks for the assessment criteria and overall assessment, and prepare consensus-based written assessments.

Portfolio assessment 
When we prioritise between applications for the recommendation to the portfolio boards, the portfolio assessment takes the following into account:

• The applications’ assigned marks based on the assessments. The panel's overall mark will be given more weight than the mark awarded for relevance.
• A good distribution of projects in relation to priorities set out for the specific topic.
• The relative volume and quality of grant applications within the same topic under other calls in 2021.
• Any changes in the financial or scientific framework set by the ministries. 
• Priority will be given to projects led by women project managers when the applications are otherwise considered to be on a par. 

Recommendations are presented to the portfolio board, which has the authority to grant funding.

Please note that the amount announced in the call, both overall and per topic, is an estimate of available funding. The final amount of funding granted may therefore deviate somewhat from this estimate.

The procedures described here are subject to change due to the coronavirus situation.

Decision to grant funding – topic Ground-breaking research/Fellesløft IV:
The portfolio boards for Life science, Natural science and technology, and Humanities and social sciences are responsible for final approval of grant allocations.

For universities:  The Research Council will submit ranked lists and the referee assessments for the ranked grant proposals on these lists to the respective universities. Each university will draw up a list of the grant proposals it believes should be awarded funding. The portfolio boards are responsible for final approval of grant allocations based on the universities’ lists.

For other research organisations: On the basis of the ranked lists, the Research Council will make an offer to the relevant organisations to co-fund the most highly ranked grant applications. The portfolio boards are responsible for final approval of grant allocations based on the organisations’ decisions.

Decision to grant funding – topic Climate- and earth system:
The relevant portfolio board is responsible for final approval of grant allocations based on a project portfolio assessment and the Research Council’s recommendation.