International Partnerships for Excellent Education, Research and Innovation (INTPART)

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

Requirements relating to the Project Owner 

The organisation listed as the Project Owner in the application form must have approved the submission of the application. Applications related to Norwegian Innovation Clusters must be approved by the cluster's board. 

The Project Owner must have degree-conferring programmes at master's and/or PhD level, or have documented collaboration with a Norwegian research organisation with such programmes for the INTPART project. General cooperation agreements are not accepted. 

At the application deadline, the Project Owner must be the host institution or formal partner in peer-reviewed projects with ongoing funding through one of the following schemes: 

• Centre of Excellence (CoE) 
• Centres for Environment-friendly Energy Research (FME) 
• Centre for Excellence in Education (SFU) funded by the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills 
• Centre for Research-based Innovation (SFI) 
• Centres for Clinical Treatment Research (FKB) 
• Programme for artistic research (PKU) funded by the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills 
• Petroleum Research Centres (PETROSENTER) 
• Norwegian Innovation Clusters 
• Collaborative and Knowledge-building Project funded by the Research Council of Norway 
• Researcher projects funded by the Research Council of Norway 
• Researcher projects and centre schemes funded by NordForsk or the Nordic Council of Ministers 
• Researcher projects funded by the European Commission's Framework Programme 
• Researcher projects funded by research programmes under the EEA and Norway Grants 

Information about the ongoing project, including information about the scheme under which funding has been provided, project number or other project identification, must be filled in in a separate attachment. 

Maximum number of applications per research organisation 

The Project Owner can submit a maximum number of applications based on the size of the institution. See the section on earmarked funds for information on INTPART Africa. 

• More than 1500 R&D employees: 10 applications for Panorama countries and 8 applications for INTPART Africa 
• 500–1500 R&D employees: 5 applications for Panorama countries and 4 applications for INTPART Africa 
• 100–500 R&D employees: 3 applications for Panorama countries and 2 applications for INTPART Africa 
• Fewer than 100 R&D employees: 2 applications for Panorama countries and 1 application for INTPART Africa 

Exemptions from the number limit: Formalised institutional collaborations that have lasted for more than three years, and where several Norwegian higher education institutions form a consortium that collaborates with one or more outstanding similar institutions in the priority countries, will be exempt from the number limit. 

The Project Owner must submit a list of applications that have been approved by the institution. The list must be submitted regardless of how many applications within the approved framework the institution chooses to submit. We will not process applications that are not included in such a list. Send the list by e-mail to intpart@forskningsradet.no by the application deadline 30.04.2025 at 13.00 (CET). 

Requirements relating to the project manager 

The project manager must have experience with collaborative projects, nationally and internationally. This also applies to responsible persons at the partner organisations. 

Key persons in the INTPART project must demonstrate significant roles in the ongoing project on which the INTPART application is based. This will usually mean being a project manager, work package leader, group leader or similar. See separate form for this. 

Requirements for employment 

The Project Manager must be employed by the Project Owner. 

Requirements relating to partners 

The INTPART project must have a partner that is a university, university college or other degree-conferring research institution in the partner country, with a named local contact person. 

Other types of organisations nationally and in partner countries, including Norwegian Innovation Clusters, companies and other enterprises, may be partners in INTPART. Collaborating organisations cannot be supported directly through the INTPART project, but can be subcontractors.

You can apply for funding for international collaboration activities that have not already been funded through the qualifying project. You can apply for funding both to establish new international partnerships and to strengthen existing cooperation. 

This is a thematic open call, applicants do not need to indicate specific subject topics, but we ask that applicants state their country affiliation in their application. Up to 100 million NOK is available in this call, and part of the funds are earmarked as they are financed by other portfolios in the Research Council. The earmarked funds have guidelines that will be considered in the portfolio assessment 

Earmarked funds 

The following earmarks have been added to stimulate cooperation with India, African countries, and partnership development in the technology field. 

Up to 40 million NOK is earmarked for cooperation with African countries, up to 10 million NOK is earmarked for cooperation with India, and up to 5 million NOK is earmarked for thematic projects within ICT. The allocated portfolio shall ensure that these are achieved. 

Establishment and further development of partnerships with African countries

Up to 40 million NOK is earmarked for the establishment and further development of formalized institutional cooperation on research and higher education with African countries. Applicants under this category must still meet the other requirements set in INTPART, and the projects must contribute to the development of world-leading academic environments in Norway through long-term cooperation with African countries. 

This is a thematically open earmark, and applicants can cooperate with all African countries. The projects that receive support must build on ongoing research projects, centers, or clusters at Norwegian research organizations. The scope of support is 5 million NOK per project, with a requirement of at least 20 percent self-financing of the project's total costs. 

Requirements for African partners 

The INTPART project must include at least one African partner, which is a university, college, or other degree-granting research institution in the partner country, with a named local contact person. 

Projects that only include South African partners will not qualify for this category; they must include at least one partner from another African country in addition to South Africa. 

Requirement for equitable partnerships 

Projects must be planned and implemented in accordance with guidelines for responsible international cooperation, including equitable partnerships. 

The purpose of the INTPART scheme is to ensure the development of more world-leading academic environments in Norway, but project managers applying for funding must develop and carry out projects in a way that does not disadvantage partners. The projects must contribute to the development of quality in Norway and the partnering country.

Examples of activities that we can support are: 

• development and implementation of intensive courses, field courses, summer schools, etc.; collaboration on curriculum development and development of joint courses, study programmes and/or degrees 
• joint research schools and international study programmes based on research collaborations established and institutionalised within the framework of the partnerships 
• planning and development of future research collaboration 
• guest lectures and joint teaching and supervision of students and candidates 
• cooperation with the business and industry sector 
• development and implementation of workshops, seminars and conferences with the aim of strengthening international cooperation 
• additional costs for short or long mutual mobility stays for researchers, students, managers and administrative staff 
• development of digital forms of collaboration 
• other activities involving international research and education cooperation 

What we don't cover 

We cannot cover expenses for the research activities covered by the collaboration or investments in research infrastructure. Education and teaching that are already part of the institution's ordinary study programmes must be financed in another way. 

Costs for partners that are research organisations can be covered by INTPART funding. Companies or other organisations that are not research organisations can be subcontractors to the INTPART project and thus receive funding. 

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

Scope of support 

Funding is available for NOK 5 million per project under this call, which represents 80 per cent of the project costs. Self-financing is a requirement. Self-financing must be a minimum of 20 per cent of the project's total costs. 

Prerequisites for the award of funding 

The projects must start between 01.01.2026 and 01.03.2026. The latest permitted project completion is 28.02.2030 

Only the Project Owner and collaborating research organisations are eligible to receive funding to cover their project costs. Funding is available for the research organisations' non-economic activity, and we assume that the necessary accounting separation between economic and non-economic activities is in place. Other partners cannot have project costs covered through the allocation to the project, but must bear the costs themselves. 

In addition, you must be aware of the following if you should receive an award from us: 

• The Research Council's prerequisites for awards can also be found in our general terms and conditions for R&D projects on the information page What the contract involves.  
• The project manager and the Project Owner must have assessed and managed any issue of research security in the project. Research security refers to the risks related to undesirable transfer of knowledge and technology, malign influence on research and innovation or violations of research ethics or integrity, where knowledge and technology are used to undermine key societal values.
• Grant recipients in research organisations and the public sector (Project Owners and partners) have action plans for gender equality (GEPs) available on their websites. This must be in place before the contract is signed for projects with grants from us. 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, where you will find more information about the requirements for data management plans in projects that receive funding from us.  

The Research Council will pay the funding in arrears, and you will only be reimbursed for actual costs that have been entered in the institution's accounts. All reporting must be done electronically. In addition to annual reporting and final reporting to the Research Council, student mobility in the projects must be reported in the Felles studentsystem, marked with the agreement code INTPART. You may also be asked to communicate project results at events organised by the Research Council of Norway and the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills.  

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 required 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 English, and the attachments must be uploaded in PDF format. 

Mandatory attachments 

• Project description, use the standard template that you can download at the bottom of the page (coming). 
• Form that accounts for ongoing projects. A template for the form must be used. 
• A list of which INTPART 2025 applications have been approved by your institution. 
• CV with a list of publications for the project manager, project manager at the partner and other key employees in the project, as well as educational competence, teaching experience and experience from international cooperation in higher education. A template for CV must be used. 
• Formal confirmations from the management of Norwegian and international partner institutions, as well as from the applicant institution, explaining the project's institutional anchoring, self-financing and significance for the institution must be attached. The statement must contain information about the institution's specific obligations in the implementation of the INTPART project. This also applies to Norwegian institutions that are partners in cases where the applicant institution does not itself have degree-conferring programmes; "Requirements relating to the Project Owner" above. A general cooperation agreement is not accepted. 
• For cluster applications, the cluster board's approval of the application must also be attached. 

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

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 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. 

The electronic form must include information about all partners in the project (at the institutional level), as well as all project participants, including from their own institution (at the individual level). Please note that for the partners listed in the application, a formal cooperation agreement(s) must be entered into. Such collaboration agreement(s) must be in place within three months of the Research Council submitting the contract to the Project Owner, and always before the Research Council disburses funding. 

The online form must contain a detailed milestone plan and a plan for dissemination of results in research and higher education. 

See the INTPART guidelines (to be published in early February) for details on INTPART's overall objectives, goals, and outcomes. Here you will also find more information and a description of what is emphasized during the evaluation of applications for this call. In the project description template, you should also elaborate on this.

Please note that under the criterion "Quality", we will place emphasis on relevance to the call and the qualifying project, and that for the criterion "Impacts and impacts", we will place emphasis on how the application relates to the objectives and sub-objectives of this call. 

We assess the applications according to the following criteria:

The Research Council and HK-dir assume that the projects have a high standard of research ethics, and that consideration is given to fundamental academic values, research safety and consequences for the natural environment. In collaboration with countries outside Europe, research security is important, and we refer to the guidelines for responsible international collaboration prepared by the Research Council of Norway and the Directorate General of Higher Education. The Research Council of Norway and the Directorate of Higher Education attach importance to contributing to the internationalisation of Norwegian research and higher education, to strengthening the recruitment of women to higher positions and STEM subjects, to improving the gender balance in Norwegian research, and to ensuring that the gender perspective is well taken into account in the projects. The Research Council and the Directorate of Higher Education will take this into account when prioritising the application. 

After the application deadline, the INTPART secretariat will first conduct a preliminary assessment to check that all formal requirements are met. Applications that do not satisfy the formal requirements will be rejected. 

The applications are then assessed by experts from nationally and internationally leading research, education and innovation environments. 

The experts will assess the application against the assessment criteria above. The application is assessed by several experts who have been put together in panels. The impartiality of all professionals is clarified before they assess applications. 

The panels arrive at a consensus assessment of each application. The assessments from the panels are used as a basis for deciding whether or not an application should receive funding. 

The portfolio board for the research system has the authority to allocate funds. 

The Research Council and the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills base their decisions on the portfolio board for the research system. This takes into account the following factors: 

• the marks awarded in the assessment of the applications 
• that the granted project portfolio as a whole safeguards the objectives of the INTPART scheme 
• that the granted project portfolio as a whole safeguards the objectives related to various funds from INTPART 

The portfolio assessment may also take into account the following: 

1. a balanced distribution between partner countries 
2. a balanced distribution between disciplines 
3. projects with a female project manager when the applications are otherwise assessed on an equal footing 
4. a balanced distribution between Norwegian institutions when the applications are otherwise assessed equally 
5. projects with good synergies with the EU Framework Programme 
6. projects with a clear foundation in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals 

See also: How we process applications. Please note that the relevance assessment in this announcement will be conducted by the expert panels 

We expect to publish which applications will be awarded on 19.09.2025.