General application requirements

Grant proposal requirements may vary according to the type of application. Applicants should study the description of their chosen application type in detail, and should also pay close attention to the clickable instructions in the accompanying application form. Once an application form has been opened, it is possible to print out the entire form from the menu. It is also possible to print out all the related instructions.

The Research Council has stipulated requirements relating to self-archiving and open access to scientific articles produced in connection with R&D projects funded by the Council. Read more about The Research Council's Principles for Open Access to Scientific Publications.

The instructions to the application form also provide more detailed information regarding the criteria on which the proposal evaluation process will be based.

The formal applicant/project owner

As a general rule, the formal applicant to the Research Council is to be an institution/enterprise with a specific individual designated as the project administrator. The project administrator is responsible for approving the grant application before it is submitted. The application form contains a box that must be checked off for this purpose. In doing so, the institution/enterprise confirms that the application has been approved for submission to the Research Council.

When processing the application, the Research Council will normally deal with the project administrator. The project administrator will be sent notification of the outcome of the application review process, and will be the contractual partner and party responsible for following up the project in the event funding is granted.

Doctoral and post-doctoral fellows who spend their entire fellowship period abroad may be exempted from the requirement regarding affiliation with an institution/enterprise as project owner.

The Research Council has drawn up a document containing the definition and specification of the concept "research institution" and a list of approved research institutions (PDF-209.8 KB)  

The project manager

The project manager is the person who, on behalf of the project owner, will be responsible for the project's professional progress. The project manager may be contacted during the processing of the application and will be the technical contact during project implementation. Specific project manager requirements are described in the formal description of each application type, and in the relevant application form.

Project description requirements

All applications should be accompanied by a project description There are size restrictions stipulated for each application type - see the instructions in the relevant electronic application form (eSøknad). The project description must not exceed the stipulated size restrictions.

Special requirements for attachments

Mandatory and optional attachments are stipulated for each application type. More information on attachments can be found in the individual funding announcement.

All attachments to grant proposals sent through the eSøknad system must be submitted in pdf-format. The pdf-format satisfies the criteria stipulated by the National Archives of Norway, whereas Word and rtf-formats do not.

All attachments must be submitted together with the application. The only documents that the Research Council will accept after an application has been submitted are transcripts issued after the application deadline and confirmation of completed defence of a doctoral dissertation. Submission of such appendices after the application deadline must be done by e-mail to post@rcn.no, The e-mail message must contain references to the project number, the title of the project and the name of the project manager.     

Size of the projects

The Research Council's intends to direct project support towards larger projects with more professional and strategic significance. No fixed lower limit is set on the size of the project, but it would preferable if the allocation applied for from the Research Council is at least NOK 300 000 per year on average over the project period. For certain application types, such as "Support for event" the allocations applied for will normally be lower.

Ethical guidelines

The Research Council emphasises that the projects are to maintain high ethical standards. As a general rule, the application should discuss relevant ethical questions, see the Research Ethics checklist.

Questions about ethical guidelines may be directed to the National Research Ethics Committees, all of which have the following address: Prinsensgt. 18, 0152 NO-0152 OSLO, Telephone (+47) 233-18300, Telefax (+47) 233-18301. Further information is available on the following website etikkom.no.

Protection of privacy

The general manager of NSD is the human resources ombudsman for the research performed at the institutions. Read more about the agreement for protection of privacy.

Where a study entails the collection and processing of personal data, the data processing is governed by the Personal Data Act, and the processing will be subject to the obligation to give notification or the obligation to obtain a licence pursuant to §§ 31 and 33.

Pursuant to current regulations regarding reporting requirements, approval from a regional medical research ethics committee is required for research projects that include subjects/patients/clients. More detailed information is available on NEM's website. The appropriate form is available from faculties of medicine.

If the application is granted, the applicant, depending on his/her institutional affiliation, must complete a notification form and submit it to the Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD) or the Norwegian Data Inspectorate.

Gender perspectives

Gender perspectives are to be integrated into the research funded by the Research Council. The Research Council will pave the way for increasing the recruitment of women to subjects with a low percentage of women and develop initiatives to boost the proportion of women in tenured academic positions. In this context, reference is made to the Gender equality policy. (PDF-761.2 KB)

Environmental consequences

The Research Council is concerned about any consequences the projects might have for the outdoor environment. The project description should therefore discuss whether the use of the results from the projects will have environmental consequences of significance (positive or negative). If the answer is yes, the following questions must be answered:

• Is the need for research related to these environmental consequences?
• Has the project defined objectives or secondary objectives with a view to shedding light on environmental consequences?