Gender Balance, Diversity and Inclusion in Norwegian 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. 

If the application is a collaboration between several organisations, the Project Owner must submit the application on behalf of all partners. 

Requirements relating to the project manager 

The project manager's academic competence and suitability to carry out the project will be assessed by an administrative panel of Research Council employees. There are no formal requirements for the project manager's qualifications. 

The project manager must be employed by the Project Owner or by one of the partners. 

Requirements relating to partners 

Approved Norwegian research organisations may participate as partners in the project and receive funding. 

You can apply for funding to cover the actual costs necessary to carry out the project. The Project Owner must obtain information on costs from the partners in the project. These costs must be entered in the cost plan under the cost type to which they belong. 

We require that you break down the project budget into the following cost types in your application: 

• payroll and indirect expenses, which are costs incurred by the Project Owner and partners  
• other operating expenses, which are costs for other activities necessary to carry out the project's R&D activities. All costs entered as "other operating expenses" must be specified in the application.  

The items equipment and procurement of R&D services cannot be used.  

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

Scope of support 

Funding of up to NOK 1 million per project may be awarded under this call. There is no requirement for self-financing. 

Conditions for funding 

Projects must start on 01 April 2026 and you must apply for funding from the Research Council of Norway for 2026-2028. The latest permitted project completion date is 31 March 2028. 

Support for a research organisation goes to the organisation's non-economic activity. It therefore does not constitute state aid. The Research Council assumes that the necessary accounting separation is in place. 

Ethics 

All applicants for the Research Council must give an account of the ethical issues in the project and describe how these will be handled. This is part of the project description and application assessment, and is primarily an assurance to the panel that will assess the application that there is a plan for dealing with the most important ethical dilemmas in the project. You can use the research ethics checklist, which the national research ethics committees have prepared, to help. Here you can read more about our ethical standards in research. 

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.  
• Research organisations that receive grants and the public sector (Project Owners and partners) must have action plans for gender equality (GEPs) available on their websites.  
• 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, where you will find more information about the requirements for data management plans in projects that receive funding from us.  

We pay the support in arrears and you will only be reimbursed for actual costs that have been entered in the institution's accounts. All reporting must be done electronically. 

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. 

Mandatory attachments 

• Project description of a maximum of 5 pages. Use the default template that you can download at the bottom of the page. 
• CV for project manager. Use the default template that you can download at the bottom of the page. 

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

Optional attachments 

• CV for key participants in the project in accordance with the guidelines for the application type. 

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 to BalanseHub will be processed by an administrative panel of Research Council case officers. We will make a ranked recommendation of the applications, based on the administrative panel's assessments of the four criteria. 

It is the portfolio board for the research and innovation system that makes the final decision on which applications receive funding. All applicants will receive a written explanation for the portfolio board’s decision on My RCN Web. The portfolio board bases its decision on a comprehensive portfolio assessment. This takes into account: 

• relevance to the call 
• the marks given in the assessment of the applications 
• innovative measures 
• distribution of projects on the topics gender balance, diversity (including Sami) and inclusion 

After the application processing has been completed, the applicant receives the administrative panel's assessment. The names of the case officers involved in the application process are posted on our website. There we also post which projects will receive support. 

Applications that receive funding must be revised. During the revision phase, the Research Council will request an updated progress plan and budget in accordance with the given framework. 

We expect to publish which applications will receive funding on 15 February 2026.