Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Autonomous Systems

Approved Norwegian research organisations in binding cooperation with relevant stakeholders from the public sector, trade and industry, other public entities and/or private organisations.

Projects must involve collaboration between a research group and actors in industry and/or the public sector.

Requirements relating to the Project Owner and project partners  
The project must involve two or more partners that are not research organisations. Partners that are not research organisations must together participate with a minimum of 10 per cent of the total project costs. This may be in the form of work hours or equipment. The Research Council can cover approximately 50 per cent of the contribution from companies and 100 per cent of the contribution from public sector.

More details on degrees of financial support can be found here. Information on foreign partners and other relevant issues can be found here

The research organisation listed as the Project Owner in the grant application must have approved the submission of the grant application. The grant application must describe how the project incorporates the strategic objectives and priorities of the Project Owner and all partners. 

Applicants may seek funding to cover actual costs that are necessary for the execution of the project. For more detailed information about what to enter in the project budget, please see the Research Council website. 

The state aid rules set limits for the percentage of funding that companies serving as partners are allowed to receive under the project. More information about the state aid rules is available here.  

Companies from outside Norway may participate as partners, but they may not receive funding under the project. 

Services for the project may be procured from Norwegian and international companies according to the usual terms. These companies will then be considered sub-contractors and not partners.   

The Project Owner (institution/company) 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.

The grant application, including all attachments, must be submitted in English. All attachments must be uploaded in PDF format. 

Mandatory attachments  

• A project description of maximum 10 pages using the designated template for this application type, found at the end of this call. 
• CVs of maximum 4 pages for the project manager and key project participants using the designated templates, found at the end of this call. 
• Letters of Intent from each partner listed. The letters must explain why the research project is important to the partner and describe the planned contributions to the project.  
• For projects encompassing doctoral degrees, a Letter of Intent from the degree-conferring university/institution to the grant application that confirms the doctoral fellow’s affiliation. 

Grant applications that do not satisfy the above requirements will be rejected. 

Links to websites and documents, as well as other attachments than those specified above, will not be included in the application review process. 

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

All grant applications that fall within the thematic framework of the call will be assessed by referee panels comprised of external specialists. Grant applications that do not fall within the thematic framework of the call will not be assessed. 

Grant proposals that have received an overall mark of 6 or 7 will be awarded funding. Applications with a lower overall mark will not be eligible for funding. 

Applicants whose project proposals are not awarded funding will not be permitted to reapply for funding for a period of six months from the date the proposal was submitted, but may reapply after that. During this period, no applicants may submit a grant application with the same project proposal to this call. 

Grant application processing will start immediately after the proposal is received. Notification of the funding decision may be expected 8–12 weeks after the date of submission. Please note that this may take longer during holiday periods. 

State aid  

This call for proposals constitutes a funding scheme that is notified to the EFTA Surveillance Authority. Funding awarded under this scheme is granted in accordance with Article 25 of the General Block Exemption Regulation for state aid (Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014). 

This funding scheme is to be practised in compliance with the EEA state aid rules. This means that conditions and concepts are to be interpreted in keeping with corresponding conditions and concepts in the state aid rules. In the event of conflict between the text of the call and the state aid rules, the latter will have precedence. The text of the call may be adjusted for this same reason. This call is approved as a funding scheme by the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) in aid reference 32/2019/R&D&I under the General Block Exemption Regulation.