Waiting period, submission restriction period and subtracting time

As project manager for an application to one of the calls for groundbreaking research, you will be given a one-year waiting period calculated from the date you submit the application until you can serve as project manager for a new such application. In addition, for three of the five calls, the project manager will also be subject to a submission restriction period of one or two years if the application is awarded marks below the specified thresholds in the panel review. The length of the submission restriction period depends on which call you applied for. There are no submission restriction periods for (Three-Year) Researcher Project with International Mobility and Radical Research Ideas for Early Career Scientists. In the table below you can see which average marks give the different waiting period and submission restriction periods. (Scale of marks 1–7, where 7 is the highest mark. For Radical Research Ideas, the scale of marks is A-C, where A is the highest mark.)

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.

Waiting periods and submission restriction periods apply to all open-ended calls for Researcher Projects within groundbreaking research, unless otherwise stated in the call. This means, for example, that if you are in a submission restriction period after submitting a FRIPRO application for a Researcher Project for Early Career Scientists, you cannot be the project manager for an application for a Top Researchers until the submission restriction period is over.

You can lead one project at a time

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 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. The restriction applies regardless of the type of project you manage (Top Researchers, Researcher Projects for Experienced Scientists, Researcher Projects for Early Career Scientists, Researcher Project with International Mobility, or the older calls Researcher Project for Scientific Renewal, Researcher Projects for Young Research Talents or Three-Year Researcher Project with International Mobility). The only exception is Radical Research Ideas for Early Career Scientists. You may apply for funding from this call even if you are the project manager of another project and even if there may be overlap in the project periods.

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".

Rules for subtracting time     

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 .