Joint Sino-Norwegian Researcher Project on Food Safety – Sustainable and Safe Food from Agriculture and Aquaculture

The call is open to approved Norwegian research organisations.

Requirements relating to the Project Owner

The Norwegian research organisation is to be entered as the Project Owner in the application form, and must have authorised the submission of the grant application.

Requirements relating to the project manager

The Norwegian project manager must submit the proposal to the Research Council, and the Chinese project manager must submit the proposal to the NSFC.

To qualify as project manager, you must have an approved doctorate or equivalent qualifications before the date of the application submission deadline.

If you do not have an approved doctorate but are qualified at associate professorship level or have current or previous employment in the Norwegian research institute sector or a health trust in a position as forsker 1 (research professor), forsker 2 (senior researcher) or seniorforsker (senior researcher), you are also qualified.

Requirements relating to partners

Only approved Norwegian research organisations (see under “Who is eligible to apply?” above) and corresponding research organisations in other countries are eligible to be partners and to receive Researcher Project funding.

Conditions for funding

The Research Council will not award support that constitutes state aid under this call. This means that the Research Council funding must only go to the non-economic activity of the research organisations. The Research Council requires a clear separation of accounts for the organisation’s economic and non-economic activities. Companies will not be eligible to receive support to cover projects costs and may not receive indirect support through the granting of any rights to project results.

The Research Council’s requirements relating to allocation and disbursement of support for the first year and any pledges for subsequent years are set out in the General Terms and Conditions for R&D Projects.

A project participant may not be assigned two different roles in the project. This means that a supplier of R&D services for the project may not have the role of Project Owner or partner in the same project.

Please see the webpage on “What to enter in the project budget” for details and important information.

The following costs may be covered by the funding sought from the Research Council:

• Payroll and indirect expenses relating to researcher time (including research fellowships) at the research institutions participating in the project.
• Procurement of R&D services. The Project Owner and Norwegian partners may jointly or individually procure R&D services from R&D-performing companies. Suppliers of R&D services for the project may not have the role of partner or be granted any rights to project results developed in the project.
• Costs relating to procurement and use of scientific equipment. The Research Council's guidelines for calculating costs of equipment are found here.
• Other operating expenses, including support for research stays abroad and travel expenses and other project-related costs not covered under the categories above.

To ensure adequate participation of all project partners and encourage long-term cooperation, the project description should clearly describe specific in-kind and financial contributions by each partner, as well as their role in the joint project.

For more information about financing from the Research Council, please see the guidelines for what to enter into the budget. For more information about costs being requested from the NSFC, please refer to the call text on NSFC’s website.

Scope of funding

The Research Council may provide NOK 3-5 million in funding per project under this call. There are no requirements for own financing and the Research Council can therefore provide support for up to 100 per cent of the total approved costs. Funding may be sought for joint Researcher Projects for a duration of 2-3 years, including dissemination and networking activities (i.e. workshops and conferences).

Conditions for funding

The Research Council will not award support that constitutes state aid under this call. This means that the Research Council funding must only go to the non-economic activity of the research organisations. The Research Council requires a clear separation of accounts for the organisation’s economic and non-economic activities. Companies will not be eligible to receive support to cover projects costs and may not receive indirect support through the granting of any rights to project results.

The Project Owner (R&D organisation) is responsible for selecting the archiving solution(s) to use for storing research data generated during the project. The Project Owner must specify the planned solution(s) in connection with the revised grant proposal.

Regarding medical and health-related studies involving human participants

The Research Council of Norway has specific requirements and guidelines for prospective registration and disclosure of medical and health related studies involving human participants.

A consortium agreement detailing the obligations of each partner must be drawn up before the contract with the Research Council is signed. The consortium agreement should include a specification of the regulation of the rights to and use of findings (IPR).

The grant application form must be created and submitted via “My RCN Web”. You may revise and resubmit your grant application form multiple times up to the application submission deadline. We recommend that you submit your application as soon as you have filled in the application form and included all mandatory attachments. After the deadline, it is the most recently submitted version of the grant application that will be processed.

• The grant application, including all attachments, must be submitted in English.
• All mandatory attachments must be included.
• Requirements relating to the project manager must be satisfied.
• Requirements relating to the Project Owner (research organisation) must be satisfied.
• The project must start between 1 January 2021 and 1 August 2021.
• Funding must be sought from the Research Council for 2021.

Mandatory attachments

• A project description of maximum 11 pages using the designated template found at the end of this call.
• A CV for the project manager of maximum four pages using the designated template found at the end of this call.
• A CV for the main PI among the Chinese partner(s), maximum four pages.
• A letter of support from participating partners
  Grant applications that do not satisfy the above requirements will be rejected.

Optional attachments

• A maximum of 5 optional CVs for the key project participants. Each CV must not exceed four pages; CVs that exceed the maximum length will not be included in the application review process.
  
  • Applicants themselves are to decide which project participants are most important and in which cases it will be of significance to the review process to assess these participants’ qualifications.
• Applicants are free to propose up to three referees who are presumed to be impartial and qualified to review the grant proposal.

Attachments other than those specified above as mandatory or optional, as well as any links to websites in the grant application, will not be included in the application review process.

Grant applications will be assessed in relation to the following criteria:

Grant applications will be reviewed by an international panel.

The Research Council of Norway and the National Natural Science Foundation of China will take the decision on granting or rejecting grant applications.