Mandatory project outline before applying to the Green Platform Initiative in 2025

About the Green Platform Initiative

The Green Platform Initiative is a joint assignment from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries to the Research Council of Norway, Innovation Norway and Siva. The initiative is intended to help accelerate the green transition in existing business and industry or lay the foundation for the emergence of new sustainable business and new green value chains.

The initiative will also contribute to a balanced portfolio of restructuring projects that involve the breadth of sectors and industries in Norwegian business and industry. Such a restructuring is necessary both to meet Norway's environmental and climate commitments, but also a strategic opportunity for Norwegian business and industry to build competitiveness, both nationally and internationally, create new, robust value chains, and ensure long-term economic profitability. The Green Platform Initiative encourages collaboration between research organisations and the business sector.

Green Platform projects are characterised by ambitions to

• solve key challenges and issues that will accelerate the green transition in the business sector, i.e. have  a high degree of innovation that challenges established solutions, value chains and markets;
• deliver lasting value creation and increased competitiveness for partners, through new solutions that can be disseminated and scaled both nationally and internationally;
• reduce greenhouse gas emissions and preserve or improve the state of biodiversity and the environment;
• deliver significant ripple effects that contribute directly to positive effects for society;
• build strong value chains that require risk-sharing and broad collaboration across disciplines, technology areas, competence environments, industries and sectors;
• carry out activities from research and technology development, via testing and verification to implementation, scaling and commercialisation;
• carry out a project that entails greater risk than the projects that are normally covered by other instruments;

The Green Platform emphasizes clear plans and activities that ensure that knowledge and results are applied and benefited both by business partners, as well as by other actors outside the consortium. For example, the use of catapult centres can accelerate processes by providing industry-specific facilities, equipment and expertise that help concepts and/or ideas to be developed faster, better and with less risk.

The Green Platform uses the principles of the EU Taxonomy as a basis for assessing the climate and environmental effects of projects. The taxonomy contains six environmental objectives. In order to be classified as a sustainable economic activity, the activity must contribute significantly to the fulfilment of at least one of the six environmental objectives in the taxonomy, and do no significant harm to any of the other environmental objectives. In addition, the principles for Responsible Business Conduct must be safeguarded.

For further insight into the taxonomy and threshold values: Tool for lookup in the EU taxonomy.

About the Green Platform main call for 2025

This year's call is the fourth call for proposals under the Green Platform Initiative. The previous calls were carried out in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and have resulted in a portfolio of 32 projects.

Submission of a project outline by the deadline of 5 March is mandatory and constitutes the first phase of this year's call. We want projects that solve new challenges, and not projects that build on or continue activities from consortia that have already been awarded from the Green Platform Initiative. Read more about the Green Platform projects that have received grants in the past.

The main call will be published at the end of February with an application deadline of Wednesday 4 June at 13:00. Applications for the main call that are not based on at least one outline will be rejected.

The total need for support per project will be between NOK 30–80 million. The support is granted in accordance with Article 25 of the state aid rules – support for research and development projects. The expected decision for the award is December 2025.

About the mandatory project outline call for 2025

The application deadline for mandatory project outline is Wednesday 5 March 2025, at 13:00.

Purpose of the project outline call

The aim of the project outline call is to mobilise project ideas and consortia that can be turned into competitive project applications for the Green Platform. Through the project outlines, we want to help connect potential applicants in larger and more effective consortia towards the main call. We recommend that you familiarise yourself with the purpose of the Green Platform before submitting a project outline.

Who can submit a mandatory project outline?

The target group for the Green Platform is primarily Norwegian companies and Norwegian research institutes. Other types of organisations and enterprises with activities in Norway can also submit a project outline, provided that they have a Norwegian organisation number. However, only Norwegian companies or Norwegian research institutes can submit an application for the main call. Sole proprietorships cannot submit a project outline or an application.

Who can participate?

The Green Platform is open to all technology areas, industries, sectors and industries. Businesses, research institutes, the public sector and other organisations can all be partners in a Green Platform project. Public actors can participate in consortia and act as triggers through, for example, infrastructure, procurement and development and adaptation of regulations.

How to fill out and submit a project outline?

• Log in to My page at Innovation Norway, and find a link to the Green platform project outline form below the field "Get started here".
• All fields in the form are mandatory and must be filled in.
• A project outline that has not been submitted by the deadline of Wednesday 5 March at 13:00, or is inadequately completed, will not be considered and will therefore not qualify to submit an application for the main call.
• The project outline must be written in Norwegian or English.
• The project outline must be strategically anchored in the company or research organisation that submits the outline (the Project Owner).
• It is not possible to edit submitted project outlines. Therefore, do not press the "send button" until the project outline is ready to be submitted. You will automatically receive confirmation from the portal that the project outline has been received. It is your own responsibility to check that you receive such confirmation.
• We have prepared a help document in PowerPoint format, which the actors can collaborate on filling out before the final outline text is transferred to the project outline form in Innovation Norway as a project outline portal. GP25 Working document for the design of skisser.pptx

How will the outline be processed?

Received project outlines will be assessed administratively by Innovation Norway, the Research Council of Norway and Siva. You will receive written feedback on the project outline where we first and foremost give you a repons on the relevance of the outlined project. You will also receive recommendations based on the guidelines and criteria that apply to the Green Platform, see the seven characteristics further up on this page. If the outlined project fits better within other schemes in the policy support system, you will receive a recommendation to this effect in the feedback.

Feedback on project outlines will be given on an ongoing basis and no later than week 17 in 2025.

We encourage collaboration

The title of the project outlines, names of contact persons and associated organisations will be published on the Green Platform's website. This makes it possible to exchange and collaborate on project ideas and project proposals across the project outlines. Contact us at the Green Platform for advice and guidance. The call for proposals is only available in Norwegian.

Call contact: Green platform gronnplattform@forskningsradet.no.

If the project does not have goals and ambitions in line with the Green Platform's purpose, you should consider the possibilities that lie in other schemes in the policy support system.