New Strategic Programmes for NOFIMA 2025–2028

This call is only open to applications from NOFIMA.

Requirements relating to the Project Owner 

NOFIMA must be listed as the Project Owner in the application form and must have approved submission of the grant application. 

Requirements relating to the project manager 

You must have an approved doctorate or achieved associate professor qualifications before the application deadline. Under this call, current or previous employment in a position as forsker 1 (research professor), forsker 2 (senior researcher) or seniorforsker (senior researcher) in the institute sector is considered equivalent qualifications. 

The project manager must be employed by the Project Owner. 

Requirements relating to partners 

Approved Norwegian research organisations and corresponding international organisations may participate as partners in the project and receive funding through the projects. 

Other types of organisations, such as companies and other undertakings, are not eligible to receive support, but they may serve as subcontractors to the project. Any intellectual property rights related to the results of subcontractors' work become the property of the contracting authority. 

Requirements relating to user participation 

We require user participation in the projects. In the application, please describe who the users are for the project in question and how they are involved in the planning, implementation of the project and utilisation of the results. 

It is important that the expected benefits of the project are based on user needs and documented knowledge gaps within the thematic areas set out in this call. Impacts in the short and long term are to be described in the grant application. 

You can apply for funding to cover actual costs that are necessary to carry out the project. The Project Owner is to obtain information about costs from the project partners. These costs are to be entered in the cost plan under the relevant cost category. 

• Operating expenses, including operating and depreciation costs for scientific equipment and other operating expenses. 
• Payroll expenses: For academic positions in the university and university college sector and for all doctoral and post-doctoral research fellowships in Norway the amount you apply for must follow these rates. You can apply for funding for the following types of positions:  
  • Doctoral fellowships for up to three years and postdoctoral fellowships for up to three years. The amount you are applying for must comply with the Research Council's rates for doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships. 
  • Appointments, employment periods, compulsory duties, education plans, etc. must comply with the Regulations relating to terms and conditions of employment for positions such as post-doctoral fellow, research fellow, research assistant and specialist candidate laid down by the Ministry of Education and Research. 
  • Academic positions 

The category procurement of R&D services should not be used.  

If the project includes doctoral and post-doctoral research fellowships and there are specific plans for research stays abroad for these, this may be included in the application. 

You will find detailed and important information about what the budget should contain on the website.   

Scope of funding 

The Research Council may provide up to NOK 95 million in funding per project under this call. There are no requirements for own financing. 

Conditions for funding 

Companies will not be eligible to receive support to cover project costs. 

If the project is awarded funding, the following must be in place when you revise the grant application:  

• From 2022, all grant recipients that are research organisations and public sector bodies (Project Owners and partners) must have a Gender Equality Plan (GEP) available on their website. This must be in place before the contract is signed for projects awarded funding from the Research Council. The requirement does not apply to private businesses, special interest organisations or the voluntary sector.   
• The Research Council requires full and immediate open access for scientific articles; see Plan S - Open access to publications.   
• For all projects that handle data, the Project Owner must prepare a data management plan in connection with the revised grant application. Here you will find more information about requirements for data management plans in projects that receive funding from us.   
• The Project Owner is responsible for selecting which archiving solution(s) to use for storing research data generated during the project.  

Funding will be disbursed in arrears, and only actual expenses entered in the institution's accounts will be covered. All reporting shall be done electronically. 

The application must be based on a project outline submitted to FFL by the deadline 15.12.2023. 

You can amend and submit the application several times up to the application deadline. We recommend that you submit your application as soon as you have completed the application form and uploaded the mandatory attachments. When the application deadline expires, it is the version of the application that was submitted last that we will process. 

• The grant application and all attachments must be submitted in English. 
• All attachments must be in PDF format. 
• The application must fulfil the requirements and intentions of NOFIMA Mat. 
• The grant application must include a plan for how key users (in trade and industry, society, research and public administration) are to be involved/participate in dissemination activities under the project. 
• The roles and tasks of the project partners must be clearly described. 
• The project summary must reflect all important points in the grant application because the summary forms a key part of the decision basis. 
• The project title, objectives and summary must be in Norwegian in a separate attachment of maximum one page. 
• The projects must start on 1 January 2025. The latest permitted project completion date is 31.12.2028. 

Mandatory attachments 

• Project description of max. 15 pages. Use the default template that you can download at the bottom of the page. 
• CV for the project manager of max. 4 pages. Use the default template that you can download at the bottom of the page. 

Applications that do not satisfy the above requirements will be rejected. 

Optional attachments 

• CVs for the key project participants, maximum four pages each. It is mandatory to use the CV template at the end of the call.  You will assess which project participants are the most important, and in which cases it will be of significance for the application review process to assess the qualifications of the project participants. 
• If you wish, you can attach a brief description of competence or proposals for up to three peers you believe will be suitable for assessing your application. We are not obliged to use the suggestions, but can use them when necessary. 

All attachments to the application must be submitted with the application. We will not accept attachments submitted after the application deadline unless we have requested additional documentation. 

We will not consider documents and websites linked to in the application, or attachments other than those specified above. Be careful to upload the correct attachment type, as there are no technical restrictions on what kind of templates it is possible to upload in the application form. 

Grant applications will be assessed in the light of the objective of the call and the following criteria:

Applications will be assessed by an international panel. After the panel assessment has been completed, grant applications will be assessed for relevance to the call, and this will be carried out by the Research Council in cooperation with the secretariat for FFL. The administration then writes a recommendation with recommendations to the awarding body. The awarding body ultimately makes a decision on award or rejection. 

Funding decisions are expected to be announced in early November 2024. 

See also: How we process applications.