Who can apply and when?

The research organisation applying is referred to as the project owner, and it is the project owner who holds ownership of the project. The project owner must appoint a project administrator for the application, who is usually a member of the administrative staff. They must also approve all applications submitted from their organisation to us, including confirming that you can act as project manager for an application from them. 

To be a project manager for a FRIPRO application, you must also meet the project manager requirements outlined in the call for proposals that you wish to apply to. Read the call for proposals carefully to ensure you meet all requirements. 

Are you in a FRIPRO waiting period or submission restriction period? 

One of the requirements for applying, which is common to all five calls for proposals, is that you as project manager cannot be in a waiting period or submission restriction period in FRIPRO when you submit your application. The waiting period and submission restriction period pertain to how long it has been since you last applied for funding in one of the five calls and what marks your previous application received. If you have not previously been a project manager for a FRIPRO application, this does not apply to you. 

More about the waiting period and submission restriction periods 

The waiting period is one year, applies to all project managers for applications to the five calls, and is calculated from the date you submitted your application until you may act as project manager for a new application to any of the five calls. The waiting period applies across all calls. 

For three of the calls, the project manager must wait an additional one or two years if the application receives scores below certain thresholds during the panel assessment. This is called a submission restriction period. The length depends on which call you applied for and the marks your application received. In the table below, you can see which average marks result in the various waiting and submission restriction periods (scale of marks 1–7, where 7 is the highest score). 

Before 2023, the success rate for FRIPRO applications was very low, down to just five percent. At the request of the Ministry of Education and Research, the Research Council, following input from the research sector, developed several measures to change this situation. Submission restriction periods was one of the two most important measures. Since then, the success rate has been around 20 percent. 

You cannot be the project manager for a new application if you are in a waiting period or submission restriction period, but you can be a project participant in other applications and project manager for applications for other calls under the Research Council regardless of the waiting and submission restrictions periods.

Are you the project manager of a currect FRIPRO project?

As a general rule, you cannot be the project manager for more than one project with funding from FRIPRO/groundbreaking research at a time, but you can apply for a new project well in advance of the completion of your ongoing project.

The restriction applies regardless of the type of project you manage, with one exception:  you may apply for funding for a Radical Research Ideas project, even if you are the project manager of another project and even if there may be overlap in the project periods.

When can I apply again? 

The new project for which you are applying for funding can start no earlier than the day after the end date of the first approved contract for the ongoing project you are leading, and you can submit the application 8–18 months before the planned project start-up.

If you are unsure of which date you may apply again, contact the case officer for your project. You will find contact information for the case officer in the contract for the project, which can be found on "My RCN web".

Do you not meet the experience requirements as a project manager?    

You may apply to subtract time used in connection with:   

• statutory leaves of absence
• compulsory military or civilian service (up to 12 months for either of these),   
  seeking asylum (for the period from the submission date to the date of decision on the asylum/refugee application and/or receipt of residence permit), or   
• continuous full-time and/or part-time sick leave equal to at least eight weeks full-time absence   

The periods to be subtracted must have taken place after the doctoral defence. In order to grant a subtraction, you are required to submit documentation of the time you are asking to subtract with your grant application. You must also enter the time deduction in the application form. We accept documentation from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV), physicians/health services and other public bodies (in Norway or other countries), and employers. Documentation from current or former supervisors is not sufficient. If you are providing documentation from an employer, it must come from the employer’s administration department, such as the HR department. The documentation must be submitted in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English, or must be accompanied by a certified translation into one of these languages.

We follow the rules for leaves of absence set out in the Norwegian Working Environment Act, and you may apply to subtract time for any leaves of absence you would have been entitled to if you had lived in Norway at the time. For example, you may subtract time for parental leave in a country that does not have statutory parental leave, provided that you actually took parental leave. You must be able to document the leave as described above.

Who else can participate in the project? 

In addition to the project manager, the project may also include several other permanent or temporary R&D employees. They must be employed either by the project owner, a project partner, or a subcontractor during the period they participate in the project. Companies and other enterprises cannot be project partners but may provide services to the project as subcontractors. 

Subcontractors and individuals affiliated with subcontractors should not be mentioned in the application. You must list all researchers named in the application under “project participants” in the application form, and for researchers not affiliated with the project owner, you must enter the organisation they will be employed by as a project partner. If the application is approved, you must arrange cooperation agreements with all collaborating partners. 

Collaborating partner or subcontractor? 

For researchers who will not be employed with the project owner during the project period, you must consider whether the researcher and the organisation where they are employed, are essential for the project, whether they can be relatively easily replaced, and/or whether they should have access to and/or rights to the research results in the project. If any of these apply, the organisation must be a collaborating partner, and researchers employed there may be mentioned by name in the application, and you may include a CV for them. Other organisations may be subcontractors. Subcontractors and researchers employed by them should not be mentioned by name in the application. Normally, we do not allow conversion of collaborating partners to subcontractors once an application has been approved. 

Only approved research organisations or equivalent research organisations in other countries may be project partners and receive support for a FRIPRO project. If you assess that an organisation is essential for the project, cannot be easily replaced, and/or should have access to and/or rights to the research results in the project, but is not a research organisation, this means that the project is not suitable for FRIPRO/ground-breaking research. In such cases, other calls within or outside the Research Council that allow the awarding of so-called state aid, may be more suitable. 

Subcontractors are organisations engaged by the project owner and/or partners to provide services and contribute to the implementation of certain tasks in the project. Subcontractors may not be granted rights to project results. Organisations that are subject to the regulations for public procurement must in the normal manner carry out the selection of subcontractors in accordance with these regulations. It is not possible to have R&D suppliers on the project.