Recruitment of Talented Researchers to Norway
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Purpose
The Research Council supports the recruitment of talented international researchers to the Research Council's centre calls and for projects funded through FRIPRO's call for experienced scientists, or the call for Top Researchers. The background for the scheme is the difficult situation that many researchers and institutions are now experiencing globally. The aim of the scheme is for Norwegian research organisations to have a special opportunity to recruit talented international researchers who can establish themselves in Norway, thus contributing to raising the quality and academic added value of the research communities with which the researcher will be associated.
About the call for proposals
The scheme aims to attract talented researchers from countries outside Europe to Norway.
The researchers that the Norwegian research organisations wish to associate with, cannot live in or be employed at institutions within the Council of Europe's definition of Europe (46 Member States of the Council of Europe - Portal). Russia is also excluded from the scheme.
Researchers must be linked to a research centre with funding through one of our centre calls or to a Researcher Project with funding through either of the two calls “Researcher Project for Experienced Scientists (FRIPRO)” or “Top Researchers – Researcher Projects to Develop World Leading Research Communities”. The organisation to which the researcher can be linked is the Project Owner and/or Norwegian collaborating partners that are research organisations. We expect the management of the research organisations to take responsibility for prioritising the applications that will be submitted under this call.
The project description must contain answers to the following questions (maximum three pages):
- Why do you want this researcher to establish themselves in Norway?
- How will the researcher contribute to academic quality improvement in the research community with which they will be associated?
You can apply for up to NOK 3 million per year to cover the costs defined below.
The call is available in both Norwegian and English. The text of the Norwegian call for proposals is legally binding.
Who is eligible to apply?
The management of the Project Owner that has ownership of the centre and/or the project with funding through either of the two calls “Researcher Project for Experienced Scientists (FRIPRO)” or “Top Researchers – Researcher Projects to Develop World Leading Research Communities”, is eligible to apply under this scheme.
It is important that a representative for the management of the institution that applies is the project administrator for the application. This could be, for example, the rector, the pro-rector, the director of the research organisation or the person to whom the authority has been delegated.
The Project Owner may also apply on behalf of a Norwegian collaborating partner that is an approved research organisation.
Who can participate in the project?
Requirements relating to the Project Owner
The project must start and end while the centre or the project with funding from either of the two calls “Researcher Project for Experienced Scientists (FRIPRO)” or “Top Researchers – Researcher Projects to Develop World Leading Research Communities” still has active funding from the Research Council.
Requirements relating to the project manager
The centre director or the project manager for a project with funding from either of the two calls “Researcher Project for Experienced Scientists (FRIPRO)” or “Top Researchers – Researcher Projects to Develop World Leading Research Communities”, must be the project manager for the application.
Requirements relating to the foreign researcher
The researcher must have a PhD and may neither be a resident in Norway nor have any current employment, regardless of duration or position percentage, at a Norwegian research organisation.
What can you seek funding for?
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 or partner for the researcher
- equipment, which includes depreciation costs for scientific equipment and research infrastructure necessary for the researcher's work in the centre/project
- other operating expenses, such as costs associated with travel and accommodation for the researcher. All costs entered as "other operating expenses" must be specified in the application.
The cost type 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
The size of the projects can be up to NOK 6-9 million in total, spread over 2 to 3 years. We do not require own financing.
Conditions for funding
The project must start between 1.1.2026 and 1.4.2027. The latest permitted project completion date is 31.3.2030.
In addition, you must be aware of the following if you should receive support from us:
- The Research Council's conditions for funding can also be found in our General Terms and Conditions for R&D Projects on the information page What the contract involves.
- 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.
- Grant recipients that are research organisations and public sector entities (Project Owners and partners) must have action plans for gender equality (GEPs) available on their websites. This must be in place before the contract is signed for projects with grants from us. 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, where you will find more information about the requirements for data management plans in projects that receive funding from us.
- For medical and health studies involving humans, the Research Council sets special requirements and guidelines for prospective registration of studies and publication of results.
Relevant thematic areas for this call
The call is open to all subjects and thematic areas.
Internationalisation
Practical information
Requirements for this funding scheme
Please note that you can only submit the application once. If you submit the application and subsequently see that it still needs to be changed, you can create a new application – e.g. as a copy of the one you have already submitted – and in this way submit a new version as long as the call is open for applications.
- The application and all attachments must be written in English.
- All attachments must be in PDF format.
Mandatory attachments
- Project description of maximum 3 pages. Use the standard template that you can download at the bottom of the page.
- CV for the foreign researcher. Use the standard template that you can download at the bottom of the page.
Applications that do not meet the requirements above will be rejected.
All attachments to the application must be submitted with the application. 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.
Administrative procedures
The Research Council's administration processes the applications on an ongoing basis. Funding is awarded in the order in which we receive the applications, provided that they meet the requirements and there are still funds available.
It is the management of the organisation that is the Project Owner for the centre and/or project that assesses the quality of the researcher and the research for which funding is sought. We will not overrule this assessment.
We only check that the requirements for the application are met, cf. the project description and mandatory attachments.
Applications that do not meet the requirements set out in the call will be rejected on an ongoing basis. You can expect an answer to whether the application satisfies the requirements no later than four weeks after submission.
The Research Council will make decisions on the allocation of funding for applications that meet the requirements starting January 2026.
We will close the call for new applications when there is no longer funding available to support more qualified applications.
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Messages at time of print 22 August 2025, 08:08 CEST