Centre for Quantum Technology Research

Only approved Norwegian research organisations are eligible to apply. See the list of approved research organisations.

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 in the application must be the centre director. 

• You must have an approved doctoral degree or achieved associate professor qualifications before the application deadline. For the purposes of this call, being or having been employed as researcher 1, researcher 2 or senior researcher in the institute sector is considered to be associate professor competence. 
• You must have documented competence and/or experience in managing large projects. 
• You can only be the project manager for one application submitted under this call. 
• The project manager must be employed by the host institution. 

Requirements relating to partners 

Approved Norwegian research organisations and similar foreign organisations may participate as partners in the project and receive funding. The project must be carried out in effective collaboration between the parties participating in the project. 

Relevant actors in the industry and public sectors may also be included as partners in the centre, but may not receive funding from the Research Council. 

The application must be strategically endorsed by the Project Owner and all partners. 

You can apply for support to cover the actual costs necessary to carry out the activities in the centre. You will find detailed and important information about what to enter in the project budget on the website.  

You can receive support for the following costs: 

• Payroll and indirect expenses related to researcher time (including research fellowship positions) at the research organisations participating in the centre. For doctoral scholarships, support is limited to three full-time equivalents per research fellow. For post-doctoral fellowships, the support is limited to up to four full-time equivalents per research fellow, and the fixed-term period must be three to four years. To ensure the long-term effect of the centre on Norwegian knowledge preparedness, the creation of new, permanent research positions may be part of the research organisations' plans. Such research positions, which are intended to contribute directly to the centre's activities, can be funded within the centre's allocation for a period of up to three years. An important effect will be increased capacity and higher quality in the research area in the long term. Therefore, it is important that the researchers in the centre also teach students. Exceptions can be made for the centre director. Adjunct professor positions may receive funding.   
• Equipment necessary to carry out the project. This includes rental and depreciation costs for scientific equipment, access to and use of national or international research infrastructure and minor new acquisitions and upgrades of existing equipment, up to 50% of the total budget of the centre.  The funds cannot be used for the purchase of commercial quantum computers.  
• Other operating expenses, which are costs for other activities necessary to carry out the centre's R&D activities. Purchases from subcontractors over NOK 100,000 must be specified.  

The cost type Procurement of R&D services in the application form must not be used.  

Scope of support 

Funding of up to NOK 61 million per project is available under this call.   

We expect the host institution and partners to contribute funding to highlight strategic anchoring and commitment, but we do not require own financing. 

You must cover stays abroad for doctoral and postdoctoral research fellows within the framework of the centre. The research centre is therefore not covered by our call for funding for stays abroad. 

Ethics 

The Research Council requires a high standard of research ethics in the projects we fund, and ethics are included in our assessment criteria. What you write about ethics in the applications is primarily an assurance to the referees that there is a plan in place to deal with the most important ethical dilemmas in the project. The responsibility for ensuring that the research ethics standard is followed lies with the individual researcher and research institution (cf. the Act on the Organisation of Research Ethics Work).  The panel's assessment and the Research Council's decision on the award therefore do not entail any research ethics approval. 

Conditions for funding 

We do not award state aid under this call. This means that the funding should only go to their non-economic activity. We assume that the necessary accounting separation is in place. 

The Research Council's prerequisites for the allocation and disbursement of funding for the first year, as well as commitments and disbursements for subsequent years, can be found in our General Terms and Conditions for R&D Projects.  

If you are awarded funding for the project, the following must be in place before you enter into a contract with us: 

• The Project Owner must establish a joint collaboration agreement with all the partners and a mandate for a board, if any. 
• The project manager and the Project Owner must have assessed and handled the consideration of research security in the project. Research security refers to risks associated with unwanted transfer of knowledge and technology, impact on research and innovation, or breaches of research ethics/integrity where knowledge and technology are used to undermine key societal values.  
• Project Owners and partners that are research organisations or public sector entities must have action plans for gender equality (GEPs) available on their websites. The requirement does not apply to the private sector, interest groups or the voluntary sector.  
• The Research Council requires full and immediate open access for scientific articles, see Plan S - open access to publications.  
• For all projects that handle data, the Project Owner must prepare a data management plan in connection with the revised application.   

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 required attachments. When the application deadline expires, it is the version of the application that was submitted most recently that we process. 

If you wish to withdraw an application, you can do so by sending us an e-mail with a copy to the administrative officer stating the ES number of the application. 

The application must meet the following requirements: 

• The application and all attachments must be written in English. You can download all the standard templates at the bottom of the call. 
• The requirements relating to the Project Owner's research organisation must be met. 
• Requirements for the partners must be met. 
• You can submit a maximum of five CVs. 

Mandatory attachments 

• Project description, up to 20 pages. 
• CV for the project manager (centre director). 
• If the centre is to be able to educate candidates at doctoral and/or postdoctoral level who can be security cleared (see Administrative procedures), you must enclose a description of how you plan to carry out the process of announcing and appointing research fellow positions, so that you meet the requirement for security clearance. This is to be uploaded under the attachment category "Other". 

Applications that do not meet the requirements above may be rejected. You must use standard templates for the mandatory attachments project description and CV. The templates can be found at the bottom of the call. 

Optional attachments 

• CVs for up to four of the most important people (e.g. work package leaders) in the project. Use the default template. 
• Letters of intent
• Letters of support
• Proposals for up to five peers who are presumed to be impartial to assess the application. The peers' name, title, email address, institutional affiliation and a justification for why they are suitable must be entered. We are under no obligation to use these suggestions. 

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:

Once the application deadline has passed and we have received the applications, we will first check that the formal requirements for the application have been met. Applications that do not meet these requirements may be rejected. 

The Research Council of Norway may reject applications where the Project Owner or any partner has significantly breached its obligations in other projects funded by the Research Council within the two years prior to the submission of the application.  

The application may be rejected if the project manager has been convicted of misconduct by the Joint Integrity Committee or the Investigation Committee in the last two years prior to the submitted application. 

Where the requirements are met, we will make the application, with all mandatory attachments, available to international peers who individually assess the criteria Excellence, Impact and Implementation. The referees then meet in panels where they arrive at a consensus assessment of the application for each of the criteria.  

The Enabling technologies portfolio board ultimately decides which applicants receive funding. First, we rank the applications based on the average mark on the assessment criteria. The portfolio board then makes an overall consideration of the applications with the highest average marks, based on the following portfolio criteria: 

• Together, the centres will cover the three areas of quantum computing, quantum sensors and quantum communication. 
• Together, the centres must have partners from at least two Nordic countries except Norway. 
• Together, the centres will involve several Norwegian companies and/or the public sector, e.g. in reference groups. 
• In total, the centres must educate at least 8 candidates, at doctoral and/or postdoctoral level, who can be security cleared to a minimum of "Secret". 
• Overall, the centres' research activities will shed light on the consequences of quantum technology and in particular its significance for state and societal security. 

Details of the Portfolio Board's general objectives can be found in the Enabling technologies portfolio plan.  

Feedback to the applicant 

We will provide information about which applications have been granted and statistics on applications and grades on our website and in our newsletter. 

Applicants whose applications are rejected will receive a rejection letter on My RCN Network as soon as possible. Applicants whose application is granted will receive a letter about the allocation on My RCN Web. The letter may contain conditions regarding changes that must be made to a revised application before the Research Council and the Project Owner can enter into a contract. 

All applicants will receive feedback that includes grades and written justifications for the assessment. You will also find out which peers participated in the panel. 

See also: How we process applications.   

We expect to publish which applications will receive funding during week 51 in 2025.