Research cooperation with Russian authorities on hold

The Research Council of Norway strongly condemns Russia's military attacks on Ukraine. The Research Council is in ongoing dialogue with the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research and Norwegian research institutions, and we are now making thorough assessments of what the consequences will be for the projects we fund.

With a few exceptions, all bilateral cooperation between Norwegian and Russian authorities has been put on hold, and only the critical parts of the cooperation are maintained. This means that the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research suspends its dialogue with Russian authorities, and the same applies to the underlying agencies.

Researcher-to-researcher collaboration should be continued as long as the institutions and institutes consider it prudent. The ministry leaves it to the sector to draw the boundaries between institutional cooperation and researcher-to-researcher cooperation.

The sanctions and measures taken by the Norwegian government and the ministry are directed towards Russian authorities. Russian citizens in Norway should in no way be held accountable for what the Russian authorities have now done, and they should continue to experience that it is safe to study and work at Norwegian universities, university colleges and research institutes.

How the Research Council of Norway is tightening knowledge cooperation with Russia

• The call for proposals "Norwegian-Russian bilateral call for proposals on environmental aspects and sustainable development of resources in the High North" was cancelled on 1 March 2022.
• In the call for proposals "INTPART International Partnership for Excellence in Education, Research and Innovation", we will not allow projects to enter into agreements with Russian partners.
• As of now, the Research Council funds 43 projects which have at least one Russian partner. Funding from the Research Council goes to the Norwegian institution that has the financial and accounting responsibility for the project.

Based on the guidelines from the Norwegian government, the Research Council has come up with the following policy for ongoing projects:

• From now and until further notice, no research funding is to be sent to Russian partners or sub-contractors in Russia.
• To the greatest extent possible, the government wishes to maintain researcher-to-researcher cooperation. If it is possible to maintain the project's progress and cooperation with Russia without transferring funds, it is up to the Norwegian institution (where the project manager is employed) to assess whether other changes are needed. When there are changes to a project, apply via My RCN web as normal. The funds that would otherwise have gone to a Russian partner can be reallocated for other purposes (apply via My RCN web).
• Projects that do not have financial obligations to a Russian partner must assess whether the project can proceed as before. In any case, changes to the project must be applied for via My RCN web.
• If the Russian researchers in the project are already in Norway, the project can continue as before, and costs incurred in Norway can be covered by the project.
• Grant applications that are currently being processed will not be assessed negatively or differently in the evaluation process.
• If grant applications with Russian partners are recommended for funding, we will consider whether these partners can be part of the projects or whether the grant applications must be revised with regards to this during contract negotiations. The decision will depend on the situation in Ukraine and any guiding principles from the Government at that time. 

Read more about research and education cooperation with Russia on the regjeringen.no webpage: The Norwegian government stops research and education cooperation with Russia (regjeringen.no - in Norwegian only)