Arctic Field Grant (AFG) – Funding for Fieldwork in Svalbard

The grants will support master's and doctoral students, and more experienced researchers who are not currently established in Svalbard. 

You can apply for funding for one named project manager (student/researcher). You cannot transfer funds to another person or year. The application must be written by the project manager and submitted by the Project Owner (an approved Norwegian research organisation). See the list of approved research organisations.  

If the project manager is not employed by the Project Owner, the application must provide a description of the collaboration and the benefits it will have for both parties.

Requirements relating to the Project Owner 

The research organisation listed as the Project Owner in the application form must have approved the submission of the application. 

Requirements relating to the project manager 

The project manager is the person for whom funding is applied for and who will carry out the fieldwork. He/she must be a master's student, a doctoral student or a more experienced researcher (who is not currently established in Svalbard) affiliated with the Project Owner. Applicants who are not employed by or enrolled as a Master's or PhD student with the Project Owner are eligible for AFG if, and only if, their project is carried out in close collaboration with the Project Owner. 

You must not list any partners in the application form, but you can mention them in the project description. You must therefore not enter costs or financing for partners in the budget. 

Scope of support 

You can apply for a maximum of NOK 120,000. 

You can apply for funding to cover costs related to fieldwork in Svalbard (including Bjørnøya and Hopen) or on Jan Mayen. 

We can cover the cost of a maximum of one field assistant only if it is necessary for safety reasons. We only cover travel costs to Svalbard for the field assistant if you can justify why, due to special qualifications or skills, you cannot use a local field assistant. 

We only cover helicopter rental when it is absolutely necessary and other means of transport are not possible. You should coordinate boat rental and helicopter transport with other projects (see Research in Svalbard Portal).   

You can apply for funding to cover supplementary costs for fieldwork, it is not intended to fully fund a project. We provide support to cover direct costs related to field-based collection of data and samples for a project, as well as an additional 5 per cent for the Project Owner (the responsible organisation). 

A calculator for fieldwork costs is available at the end of this call. 

You must specify the following items in the application form: 

• Travel to Svalbard 
• Costs of accommodation 
• Local transport 
• Purchase 
• Equipment rental costs 
• Rental of facilities in Ny-Ålesund 
• Institutional supplement (5 per cent of the total) 
• Field assistant (if necessary for safety reasons) 

The support may not be used for: 

• Labor costs 
• Compensation for time at sea/in the field or for regular working hours (for applicants or field assistants) 
• Compensation for the use of private equipment (e.g. snowmobile, clothing) 
• Purchase of instruments and other equipment 
• Any analysis costs, including laboratory work, except for securing samples and preparing samples for shipment 
• Participation in courses, conferences or seminars 
• Travel to Longyearbyen from the mainland for people who are already in Svalbard (residents or permanent residents, UNIS employees, permanent employees at research bases, course participants, etc.). 

You can find detailed and important information about what to enter in the project budget on the website.  

In addition, you must be aware of the following if you should receive an award from us: 

• The Research Council's prerequisites for awards can also be found in our general terms and conditions for R&D projects on the information page What the contract involves.  

The Project Owner must submit two reports one month after the end date of the project: a science and field report and a financial report. You submit an EHF invoice for consumption together with a financial report. 

As part of the reporting, you must register the project and keep it updated in the Research in Svalbard portal (RiS). As part of the report, you must upload a description of the data (metadata) in the portal.  

Project managers must ensure that these reports are delivered. Both reports must be in English, follow the AFG templates and submitted as two separate high-resolution PDF files via My RCN Web. 

The financial report must include an official financial report issued by the Project Owner and must show that the expenses have been paid by the Norwegian institution or reimbursed by the institution in accordance with the budget. You must document any additions. 

The Research Council disburses the funding in arrears after an approved final report, and you will only be reimbursed for actual costs that have been entered in the organisations' accounts. 

The application must be created and submitted via My RCN Web. You can change and submit the application several times until the application deadline. We recommend that you submit your application as soon as you have completed the application form and uploaded the mandatory attachments. When the application deadline expires, it is the version of the application that was submitted most recently that we process. 

The application must meet the following requirements: 

• The project manager must be in the right category. 
• The application must be within the topic/purpose specified in the call. 
• The application amount, including own funding, and the amount applied for must correspond to the framework for the call. 
• The budget must be set up correctly, in the right template for the budget, so that it is clear what funding is being sought for. 
• The application form must be completely completed. 
• The requested attachments must be attached and in the correct template. 
• The application and all attachments must be written in English. 

Mandatory attachments 

The mandatory attachments must be written in the standard templates that can be found at the bottom of the call. 

• Project description of max 3 pages 
• CV for project manager, max 4 pages 
• An itemised budget 
• A signed confirmation from the Project Owner 
• A description of the collaboration, written by the Project Owner, including what the benefits are for both parties. This attachment is mandatory for all applicants who are not registered as a master's or doctoral student at, or employed by, the Project Owner. 

Applications that do not meet the requirements above will be rejected. 

You can find all documents and a HowTo can be found on SSF's website.  

All attachments to the application must be submitted with the application. We do not accept attachments submitted after the application deadline unless we have requested additional documentation. 

We will not consider documents and websites linked to in the application, or attachments other than those specified above. Be careful to upload the correct attachment type, as there are no technical restrictions on what kind of templates it is possible to upload in the application form. 

Applications will be assessed in light of the purpose of the call and the following criteria:

Priority will be given to projects with a female project manager when the applications are otherwise assessed equally.

Applications are processed administratively by a panel consisting of the Research Council and external referees with extensive experience from Svalbard. The final decision on funding is made by the Research Council. No individual feedback or grades will be made available to applicants after the application processing. 

We expect to publish which applications will receive funding by the end of January 2026. 

See also: How we process applications.