Research Centre for Norwegian as an Academic Language

Only approved Norwegian research organisations are eligible to apply. See the list of approved research organisations.  

Requirements relating to the Project Owner 

The research organisation listed as the Project Owner in the application form must have approved the submission of the application. 

If the application is a collaboration between several organisations, the Project Owner must submit the application on behalf of all partners. 

Requirements relating to the project manager 

• You must have an approved doctoral degree or achieved associate professor qualifications before the application deadline. For the purposes of this call, being or having been employed as researcher 1, researcher 2 or senior researcher in the institute sector is considered to be associate professor competence. 
• The Project Manager must be employed by the Project Owner or by one of the partners. 

Requirements relating to partners 

• Approved Norwegian research organisations and similar foreign organisations may participate as partners in the project and receive funding. 
• Relevant actors in the public sector can also be included as partners in the centre. 
• The application must be strategically supported by the Project Owner and all partners. 
• All partners must actively contribute to the planning and implementation of the centre's activities, dissemination of results from the centre's research activities and ensure that new knowledge is put to use. 
• See also the document Requirements and guidelines for research centres (strategic environmental support) on organisation and responsibilities in the centre.  

You can receive support for the following costs: 

• Payroll and indirect costs related to researcher time (including research fellowship positions) at the research organisations participating in the centre. For doctoral scholarships, the support is limited to three full-time equivalents. For postdoctoral fellowships, support may be awarded for a minimum of 3 full-time equivalents and a maximum of 4 full-time equivalents. To ensure the long-term effect of the centre on Norwegian knowledge preparedness, the creation of new, permanent research positions may be part of the research organisations' plans. Such research positions, which are intended to contribute directly to the centre's activities, can be funded within the allocation for a period of up to three years. We do not cover salary and personnel costs for other permanent employees at universities or university colleges. An important effect will be increased capacity and higher quality in the research area in the long term. Therefore, it is very important that the researchers in the centre also teach students. Exceptions can be made for the centre manager. Adjunct professor positions may receive funding.  
• Equipment necessary to carry out the project. This includes rental and depreciation costs for scientific equipment, access to national or international research infrastructure, and minor new acquisitions and upgrades of existing equipment.  
• Other operating costs, which are costs for other activities necessary to carry out the centre's R&D activities. Purchases from subcontractors over NOK 100,000 must be specified.  

The cost type "Procurement of R&D services" in the application form cannot be used.  

You can apply for support to cover the actual costs necessary to carry out the activities in the centre. You will find detailed and important information about what the budget must contain on the website and more detailed information about the type of application in Requirements and guidelines for research centres (strategic environmental support).  

Scope of support 

The available budget of NOK 120 million will be used to establish one or two centres. This means that you can apply for a maximum of NOK 120 million over an eight-year period, divided into a maximum of NOK 75 million for the first five years and a maximum of NOK 45 million for the last three years. The funding for the last three years will depend on the outcome of the underway assessment of the centre. 

You can apply to the Research Council for up to NOK 15 million per year. 

The Project Owner and partners are expected to contribute their own funding to highlight strategic ties to and commitment from the organisations. 

Stays abroad for doctoral and postdoctoral research fellows must be covered within the framework of the centre. The research centre is therefore not covered by our call for funding for stays abroad. 

Conditions for funding 

The projects must start between 01.04.2025 and 01.09.2025. The latest permitted project completion date is 31.08.2033. 

We do not award funding that constitutes state aid under the call. Companies are not eligible to receive funding to cover project costs. Support to a research organisation goes to the organisation's non-economic activity and thus does not constitute state aid. The Research Council assumes that the necessary accounting separation is in place. 

The Research Council's conditions for the allocation and disbursement of funding for the first year, and any commitments and disbursements for subsequent years, are set out in our general terms and conditions for R&D projects, which you can find in full on the information page This is what the contract consists of.  

If you are awarded funding for your centre, the following must be in place before you enter into a contract with us: 

• The Project Owner must establish a joint collaboration agreement with all partners and a mandate for the board.  
• A board must be appointed before the start of the centre. It must consist of representatives from the Project Owner and the partners. 
• Grant recipients in research organisations and the public sector (Project Owners and partners) must have action plans for gender equality (GEPs) available on their websites. The requirement does not apply to the private sector, interest groups 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 application. Here you will find more information about requirements for data management plans in projects that receive funding from us.  

Funding from the Research Council is paid in arrears on the basis of an EHF invoice sent from the Project Owner to the Research Council. You will only be reimbursed for actual costs that have been entered in the project partners' accounts.   

For information about reporting etc., see the document  Requirements and guidelines for research centres – Research Institution-based Strategic Project.  

Underway assessment 

Based on an assessment of the centre during the project period, the Research Council may stipulate new conditions in the contract for the centre's activities during the last three years of the project period. The factors that will be particularly emphasised in the assessment are set out in the list of key success criteria for a centre for Norwegian as an academic language (in Norwegian only).

The underway assessment will also assess how the centre will contribute to achieving the thematic objectives and priorities set out in the call, and how any conditions for the funding have been followed up. The underway assessment will in particular assess the results achieved by the centre in relation to the original project description. The underway assessment will also provide an assessment of the plans for the centre's activities during the last three years. The centre will be given the opportunity to comment on the underway assessment. 

You can change and submit the application several times until 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 most recently that we process. 

• The application and all attachments must be written in Norwegian. 
• All attachments must be in PDF format. 

Mandatory attachments 

• Project description, up to 20 pages. Use the default template that you can download at the bottom of the page. 
• CV for project manager. Use the default template that you can download at the bottom of the page. 
• CVs for up to five of the most important people (e.g. work package managers) in the project. Use the default template that you can download at the bottom of the page. 

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

Optional attachments 

• CVs of other key participants in the project. 
• A brief description of competence and/or proposals of up to five referees who are presumed to be impartial to process the application. The referees' name, title, e-mail address and institutional affiliation must be entered. We are under no obligation to use these suggestions. 

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

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

Applications will be assessed in light of the purpose of the call and the following criteria:

The applications will be assessed by an international referee panel. 

The panel will assess each application in accordance with the assessment criteria and in light of the requirements and objectives set out in the call. 

The applicant will be sent the panel's preliminary assessment and grades. The applicant will then have the opportunity to clarify any professional misunderstandings in the panel assessment. This will tentatively take place in November/December 2024. These comments will then be sent back to the panel, which can choose to take the comments into account when making their final assessment. 

The panel can advise on adjustments to the cost limits of the applications, which may be particularly relevant if two centres are to be funded. 

After the panel assessment has been completed, the administration will assess the application's relevance to the call, and then write a recommendation to the portfolio board. The Portfolio Board for Ground-breaking Research will make the funding decision. The portfolio board bases its decision on the panel's assessment and the assessment of relevance. The portfolio board will have access to the applications with attachments, the text of the call, the panel's assessments and recommendations, the relevance assessment and the applicants' comments. 

If the number of applications and/or the quality of the applications is too low, less than the available framework of NOK 120 million may be allocated. 

You can expect an answer to the application in March 2025. 

See also: How we process applications.  

The call may be subject to changes in the event of changes in the ministries' financial or technical guidelines for the allocation.