Research for the Norwegian Food Safety Authority
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Important dates
22 Jan 2025
Open for applications
12 Mar 2025
Application deadline
01 Oct 2025
Earliest permitted project start
01 Apr 2026
Latest permitted project start
31 Mar 2030
Latest permitted project completion date
Important dates
Purpose
The purpose of this call is to obtain more knowledge about the occurrence of PFAS in plant and animal products.
About the call for proposals
PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a group of persistent synthetic chemical compounds that are now found everywhere. These substances are broken down very slowly and can accumulate in the body over time due to exposure through food and drink, among other things. PFAS can, among other things, inhibit the immune system, reduce fertility, be carcinogenic and negatively affect several internal organs.
Through its monitoring programme, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority has analysed environmental toxins, including PFAS, in fish and feed over several years. In Norway, however, we have a large knowledge gap when it comes to the occurrence of PFAS in plant and animal products. There is therefore a need to research the occurrence of PFAS concentrations in agricultural areas that are assumed to have higher pollution, either due to location or the use of sewage sludge as a soil improver. Furthermore, it is necessary to identify the types of plant crops and crops that are most vulnerable to uptake of these chemical compounds, and to develop measures that can reduce this uptake. There is also a need to research the presence of these substances in animal products such as meat, milk and eggs.
In order to strengthen the Norwegian Food Safety Authority's risk assessment and monitoring of PFAS in food production, the knowledge from the projects should be able to lay the foundation for developing predictive models that can predict the levels of PFAS in agricultural products based on factors such as soil conditions, climatic influences and the use of soil improvers.
Projects that receive funding must:
- provide knowledge about the occurrence of PFAS in agricultural areas with an increased risk of pollution, for example due to the use of sewage sludge or proximity to industrial areas and airports
- identify plant and/or animal products that are particularly vulnerable to the uptake of PFAS
- lay the foundation for the development of predictive models
The call is available in both Norwegian and English. The text of the Norwegian call for proposals is legally binding.
Who is eligible to apply?
Only approved Norwegian research organisations are eligible to apply. See the list of approved research organisations.
Who can participate in the project?
Requirements relating to the Project Owner
The Project Owner organisation must be a research organisation.
The research organisation listed as the Project Owner in the application form must have approved the submission of the application.
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
Only approved research organisations (see "Who is eligible to apply?" above) or equivalent research organisations in other countries may be partners and receive funding for a Researcher Project.
Other types of organisations, including companies and other enterprises, may not be partners in research projects.
As the Project Owner and/or partner in the project, you can engage subcontractors to deliver services and contribute to the implementation of certain tasks in the project. Subcontractors cannot be given rights to project results. Organisations that are subject to the regulations for public procurement must in the usual way carry out the selection of subcontractors in line with these regulations. It is not possible to have R&D suppliers in the project.
One and the same actor cannot have two different roles in the project. This means that a subcontractor cannot be the Project Owner or a partner in the project at the same time.
What can you seek funding for?
You can apply for funding to cover the actual costs necessary to carry out the project. The Project Owner must obtain information on costs from the partners in the project. These costs must be entered in the cost plan under the cost type to which they belong.
We require that you break down the project budget into the following cost types in your application:
- payroll and indirect expenses, which are costs incurred by the Project Owner and partners in the public sector, research organisations and Norwegian industry
- other operating expenses, which are costs for other activities that are necessary to carry out the project's R&D activities. Any purchases from subcontractors must be entered here. All costs entered as "other operating expenses" must be specified in the application.
- equipment, which includes operating and depreciation costs for scientific equipment necessary to carry out the project
The cost type procurement of R&D services shall not be used.
If doctoral and postdoctoral research fellows are included in the project and there are specific plans for them to stay abroad, this may be included in the application.
You can find detailed and important information about what to enter in the project budget on the website.
Scope of support
Funding of up to NOK 8 million per project may be awarded under this call. There are no requirements for own financing, but for the higher education sector, the Research Council requires some own financing of researcher time.
Prerequisites for the award of funding
The projects must start between 01.10.2025 and 01.04.2026. The latest permitted project completion date is 01.04.2032.
Support for a research organisation goes to the organisation's non-economic activity. It therefore does not constitute state aid. The Research Council assumes that the necessary accounting separation is in place.
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.
- 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.
- For medical and health studies involving humans, the Research Council sets special requirements and guidelines for prospective registration of studies and publication of results.
Relevant thematic areas for this call
The call covers the thematic area Food and Bioresources. We accept applications for funding for both applied and basic research.
Food and bioresources
Practical information
Requirements for this application type
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.
Mandatory attachments
- Project description of maximum 11 pages. Use the default template that you can download at the bottom of the page.
- CV for project manager of maximum 4 pages. Use the default template that you can download at the bottom of the page.
- CV for key participants in the project, maximum 4 pages each. 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
If you wish, you can attach a brief description of competence or suggestions for up to three peers you believe would be suitable to assess your application. We are not obliged to use the proposals, but can do so if necessary.
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.
Assessment criteria
Applications will be assessed in light of the purpose of the call and the following criteria:
Excellence – potential for advancing the state-of-the-art
• Scientific creativity and originality.
• Novelty and boldness of hypotheses or research questions.
• Potential for development of new knowledge beyond the current state-of-the-art, including significant theoretical, methodological, experimental or empirical advancement.
Excellence – quality of R&D activities
• Quality of the research questions, hypotheses and project objectives, and the extent to which they are clearly and adequately specified.
• Credibility and appropriateness of the theoretical approach, research design and use of scientific methods. Appropriate consideration of interdisciplinary approaches.
• The extent to which appropriate consideration has been given to ethical issues and gender dimension in research content, and the use of stakeholder/user knowledge if appropriate.
Impact
• Potential for academic impact:
The extent to which the planned outputs of the project address important present and/or future scientific challenges.
The extent to which the planned outputs are openly accessible to ensure reusability of the research outputs and enhance reproducibility.
• Potential for societal impact (if addressed by the applicant):
The extent to which the planned outputs of the project address UN Sustainable Development Goals or other important present and/or future societal challenges.
• The extent to which the potential impacts are clearly formulated and plausible.
Communication and exploitation
• The extent to which the appropriate open science practices are implemented as an integral part of the proposed project to ensure open sharing and wide distribution of research outputs.
• Quality and scope of communication and engagement activities with different target audiences, including relevant stakeholders/users.
Implementation
• The extent to which the project manager has relevant expertise and experience, and demonstrated ability to perform high-quality research (as appropriate to the career stage).
• The degree of complementarity of the participants and the extent to which the project group has the necessary expertise needed to undertake the research effectively.
The quality of the project organisation and management
• Effectiveness of the project organisation, including the extent to which resources assigned to work packages are aligned with project objectives and deliverables.
• Appropriateness of the allocation of tasks, ensuring that all participants have a valid role and adequate resources in the project to fulfil that role.
• Appropriateness of the proposed management structures and governance.
Relevance to the call for proposals
Administrative procedures
The applications will be assessed by an international referee panel. After the panel assessment has been completed, the applications will be assessed with regard to their relevance to the call. The administration then writes a recommendation with recommendations to the appropriating board, which ultimately makes a decision on granting or rejecting.
See also: How we process applications.
We expect to publish which applications will be awarded by 27 September 2025.