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Research Centres for Artificial Intelligence (AI Centres)

Important dates

01 Nov 2024

Open for applications

15 Jan 2025

Application deadline

JUNE 2025

Expected funding decision

01 Sep 2025

Earliest permitted project start

01 Dec 2025

Latest permitted project start

30 Nov 2030

Latest permitted project completion date

Important dates

Last updates

01 Nov 2024

We have changed the limit for number of CVs for centrale project participants from five to 15.

Purpose

The purpose of the call is to establish four to six artificial intelligence research centres (AI centres). The centres will focus on the future of computing, with an emphasis on artificial intelligence, digital security and the societal consequences of digital technology development. The centres will carry out high-quality AI research on issues where interdisciplinary research and collaboration across sectors and institutions are necessary to respond to challenges facing society.  The AI centres will be in the range of NOK 75-200 million and have a five-year duration starting in 2025.

About the call for proposals

The call is divided into two parts. First, a sketch call with a deadline of Friday 7 June 2024 and then a main call (this call) with a deadline of 15 January 2025. Submission of an outline by the outline deadline was mandatory in order to be able to submit an application for the main call. Applications that are not based on a submitted outline will therefore be rejected.  

Applicants must familiarise themselves with the call for proposals and familiarise themselves with the requirements and guidelines that apply to completing an application to AI centres. 

The call is available in both Norwegian and English. The text of the Norwegian call for proposals is legally binding. 

What goals should the AI centres meet? 

Through strengthened interdisciplinary research efforts in the field of AI, the AI centres will build capacity and expertise in the research communities, increase AI competence in society and develop new knowledge that responds to challenges and needs in the industrial and public sectors. 

The AI centres will make Norway better able to meet the challenges and exploit the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence, in a way that safeguards the fundamental values of Norwegian society. 

The AI centres will leave a clear footprint by highlighting AI-relevant issues that are important to society and that are of great importance for sustainable social development. The AI centres will trigger increased national AI efforts beyond the efforts funded by the Research Council. 

An AI centre shall: 

  • Be a national centre with ambitious goals for AI research and societal benefit.  This means that all AI centres must have broad institutional and regional collaborations with academically solid relevant actors. 
  • Develop new knowledge, technology and/or solutions that are continuously disseminated and used to create value for society. 
  • Build expertise that increases AI capacity in research environments and meets the need for qualified labour in the industrial and public sectors. 
  • Increase the internationalisation of Norwegian AI research through collaboration and participation in strong networks nationally and internationally. 
  • Strengthen our national ability to solve complex issues through interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral collaboration. 

What kind of research will the AI centres conduct? 

The core of an AI centre is to conduct research on AI and AI-relevant issues, with the ambition to move the research frontier. The issues must be general and relevant to a wide range of stakeholders and areas of application. This means that the research in an AI centre must have transfer value to more actors and areas of application than those represented in the centre. 

The AI centres will collectively cover the three tracks 

Societal consequences − research on the societal consequences of AI 

This involves identifying and solving relevant issues, dilemmas, challenges and opportunities that AI technology entails for individuals and society. Examples are AI's impact on democracy, trust and the welfare society, the rule of law and privacy, employment and jobs, childhood and education, art and culture, daily life, participation and belonging. 

Technology – research-based development of AI and AI-relevant technologies 

This includes research on key research challenges in AI, AI-relevant technologies and data that have broad application. It covers both the improvement of existing technology and research into new methods and techniques where Norway can and has good conditions to lead the way and be at the forefront. 

Innovation – research on how to use AI and any other digital technologies 

This includes research on how AI can promote creativity and innovation in trade and industry, the public sector and research organisations, and how to use AI in such a way that its use has a neutral or positive contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals, especially inclusion, energy consumption, safety and responsibility. It also includes how AI technology can form the basis for new methods, practices, services, and products, as well as create new business opportunities for organisations and trade and industry. 

The three above tracks overlap. The Research Council expects an AI centre to address interdisciplinary issues with potential for application in several industries, industries and sectors. Each AI centre must include at least two of the tracks.  AI centres that also conduct research on other digital technologies, including digital security, must ensure that this research is clearly linked to AI-related issues. 

All activities must meet the requirements for responsible research and innovation (see Responsible research and innovation as a method (forskningsradet.no).   

Organisation and working method 

An AI centre must have an organisation and working method that best meets and meets the professional, administrative and structural expectations of a centre: 

  • The centre must be led by a centre director (project manager) who is supported by a management team appointed by the Project Owner in consultation with the partners. 
  • The centre must have a board that represents the centre's partners well, ensures their co-determination and influence. The chairman of the board must be from one of the partners. 
  • The centre must facilitate a working method that ensures the implementation of fruitful interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral cooperation. 
  • The centre should plan and allocate resources for coordination and collaboration activities with the other AI centres that receive funding. 
  • The centre must have clear guidelines and plans for how results with innovation potential are to be followed up by the partners. 
  • The centre should have dialogue and communication activities with relevant groups in society, in order to understand the need for knowledge and ensure the dissemination of knowledge. The centre is encouraged to have a reference group or similar for a broader group of users and stakeholders. 
  • The centre should have an ambitious plan for recruitment, research training and competence development 
  • The centre must have a plan that describes the need for and ensures access to the necessary infrastructure for data and computing power. The management of research data must follow the FAIR principles, as far as possible. 

The points above must be answered in the project description. 

Who is eligible to apply?

Only approved Norwegian research organisations are eligible to apply. See the list of approved research organisations and definition of the public sector.

Who can participate in the project?

Requirements relating to the Project Owner 

  • The Project Owner organisation must be an approved research organisation. 
  • The research organisation listed as the Project Owner in the application form must have approved the submission of the application. 
  • The Project Owner submits the application on behalf of all partners. 

Requirements relating to the project manager 

  • The project manager (centre manager) must document relevant experience from managing large and complex projects with many partners. 
  • The Project Manager must be employed by the Project Owner or by one of the partners. 

Requirements for collaboration and roles in the project 

  • The research in the centre will be carried out by research organisations in effective collaboration with relevant actors in the public sector, non-governmental organisations, the industrial sector and/or other private organisations. See further description of effective cooperation in the document Article 25 of the Block Exemption Regulation.  
  • The centre will have partners from several Norwegian research organisations. The research organisations must cover several disciplines (level 1). At least two of these disciplines must be Technology and Social Sciences/Humanities. 
  • The centre will have several Norwegian partners that are not research organisations. These are also referred to as user partners and will contribute expertise and experience and ensure that the project and its objectives address real challenges in society. The centre may also have international user partners. It must be described how any international user partners will contribute to achieving the centre's goals. 
  • The centre must have a binding collaboration with at least one foreign research environment. The collaboration will contribute to strengthening expertise in Norway and increasing international visibility, for example in the form of 20 per cent positions in Norway, guest researchers and other collaborative activities. 
  • The centre may have associated subcontractors if these are not in a relationship of dependence on the Project Owner or any of the other partners, for example through a group relationship. They must operate at arm's length from these. 
  • The Project Owner and partners must also be independent of each other. This means that one cannot have a controlling influence over the other. This applies both between the Project Owner and the partner, and between all the partners. Read more about Partners and suppliers in innovation projects 
  • One and the same actor cannot have several roles in the centre, for example as a partner and subcontractor.

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 centre's partners. These costs must be entered in the cost plan under the cost type to which they belong. 

The following cost types should be used: 

  • payroll and indirect costs, (including research fellowship positions). For doctoral fellowships, support is limited to three full-time equivalents, and for postdoctoral fellowships, support may be awarded for three to four years.  
  • equipment, which includes operating and depreciation costs for scientific equipment and research infrastructure necessary to carry out the project  
  • other operating costs, which are costs for other activities that are necessary to carry out the project. Purchases from subcontractors must be specified.  

Both the research organisations and the user partners must work in effective collaboration and enter their costs under personnel and indirect costs, equipment or other operating costs. The item Procurement of R&D services in the application form should therefore not be used.  

The Research Council does not provide funding for major equipment investments or infrastructures under this call. 

Stays abroad for research fellows at the centre and stays for visiting researchers in Norway must be covered within the framework of the project. 

Scope of funding 

The state aid rules allow the Research Council to provide funding to partners that are registered in the Norwegian Register of Business Enterprises and have economic activity in Norway. How much can be awarded depends on the size of the enterprise and the type of research that is carried out. The following applies to this call: 

  • Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs according to the EU definition) that are considered enterprises within the meaning of state aid law can receive support of up to 50 per cent of their costs in the centre. Funding may be used to cover costs provided for in Article 25 of the GBER, and for costs that can only be categorised as basic research (GF) or industrial research (IF). Funding is not given to experimental development (EU). 
  • Large companies cannot receive support and must cover all their own costs in the centre. 
  • Public organisations can apply for up to 100 per cent support. If a public sector organisation is to be regarded as an undertaking for the purposes of state aid, the conditions set out in the call for proposals for support for SMEs and large enterprises apply. 

The Research Council may provide funding to cover the costs of foreign research organisations (see Calculating payroll and indirect expenses for the university and university college sector). We cannot cover costs with other foreign partners. These costs must therefore be kept out of the budget tables. However, you must mention the activities they will carry out, as well as their costs, in the project description (see section 3.2).  

You can find detailed and important information about what the budget should contain on the website.  

Prerequisites for the award of funding 

Support to the research organisations must go to their non-economic activity in the form of independent research carried out in actual collaboration with others. This aid therefore does not constitute state aid. The Research Council assumes that the necessary accounting separation between the organisations' economic and non-economic activities is in place. 

User partners who do not have their costs covered or only part of their costs must contribute with their own financing.  The Project Owner, other research organisations and public agencies that participate as partners may also provide their own funding, but this is not a requirement. 

The call for proposals has been notified as an aid scheme to the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) and has the reference: GBER XX/2024/R&D&I. If an undertaking is to be reimbursed for part of its project costs as a partner in the project, this must be done in accordance with Article 25 of the General Block Exemption Regulation (Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014). In addition, the general conditions in Chapter I of the Regulation must be met. The scheme shall be practised in accordance with the EEA Agreement's state aid rules. In the event of any conflict between the announcement and the state aid rules, the latter shall take precedence. For the same reason, the call for proposals may also be adjusted.  

  • Aid may not be granted to undertakings that have not complied with the requirements for repayment following a previous decision by the ESA/EU Commission declaring the aid illegal and incompatible with the internal market. Nor may aid be granted to undertakings in difficulty within the meaning of EEA law. 
  • We assume that the research in the centre is carried out in actual collaboration as defined in our General Terms and Conditions for R&D Projects.  
  • There is a requirement for an annual project accounting report documenting accrued project costs and their financing. The Research Council's prerequisites for the allocation and disbursement of funding are set out in the General terms and conditions for R&D projects. 

If the project is approved, the following must be in place when you revise the application: 

Reporting and disbursement of support 

We will 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. 

Relevant thematic areas for this call

Artificial intelligence

Practical information

Requirements for this application type

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. 

  • The application and all attachments must be written in English. 
  • All attachments must be in PDF format. 
  • The project must have a start date between 1 September 2025 and 1 December 2025. 

Mandatory attachments 

  • Project description of a maximum of 20 pages. Use the template that you can find at the bottom of the call. 
  • CV for project manager of a maximum of 4 pages. Use the standard template that you can find at the bottom of the call. 
  • CVs for up to 15 of the most important people (e.g. work package managers) in the project of a maximum of 4 pages. Use the default template that you can download at the bottom of the page. 
  • Letters of intent from all the partners. See sample letter of intent on our guidance page (in Norwegian)  

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

Optional attachment 

  • Feel free to attach an attachment with proposals for up to three professionals (or academic communities) who you believe have the competence to assess the application, or a brief description of the competence that you believe will be suitable for assessing it. We are under no obligation to use these suggestions. 

We will not consider attachments other than those specified above, or documents and websites linked to in the application. 

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.  

Assessment criteria

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

Excellence

The extent to which the proposed work is ambitious, novel, and goes beyond the state-of-the-art
• Scientific creativity and originality.
• Novelty and boldness of hypotheses or research questions.
• Potential for development of new knowledge beyond the current state of the art, including significant theoretical, methodological, experimental or empirical advancement.

The quality of the proposed R&D activities
• Quality of the research questions, hypotheses and project objectives, and the extent to which they are clearly and adequately specified.
• Credibility and appropriateness of the theoretical approach, research design and use of scientific methods. Appropriate consideration of interdisciplinary approaches.
• The extent to which appropriate consideration has been given to societal responsibility, ethical issues and gender dimensions in research content.
• The extent to which appropriate consideration has been given to the use of stakeholder/user knowledge.

Impact

Potential impact of the proposed research
• The extent to which the planned outputs of the project address important present and/or future scientific challenges.
• The extent to which the planned outputs are openly accessible to ensure reusability of the research outputs and enhance reproducibility.
• The extent to which the planned outputs of the project address important present and/or future challenges for the sector(s).
• The extent to which the competence developed and planned outputs of the project will provide the basis for value creation in Norwegian business and/or development of the public sector.
• The extent to which the planned outputs of the project address UN Sustainable Development Goals or other important present and/or future societal challenges.
• The extent to which the potential impacts are clearly formulated and plausible.

Communication and exploitation
• The extent to which the appropriate open science practices are implemented as an integral part of the proposed project to ensure open sharing and wide distribution of research outputs.
• Quality and scope of communication and engagement activities targeted towards relevant stakeholders/users.
• The extent to which the partners are involved in dissemination and utilisation of the project results.

Implementation

The quality of the project manager and project group
• The extent to which the project manager has relevant expertise and experience and demonstrated ability to perform high-quality research (as appropriate to the career stage).
• The degree of complementarity of the participants and the extent to which the project group has the necessary expertise needed to undertake the research effectively.

The quality of the project organisation and management
• Effectiveness of the project organisation, including the extent to which resources assigned to work packages are aligned with project objectives and deliverables.
• Appropriateness of the allocation of tasks, ensuring that all participants have a valid role and adequate resources in the project to fulfil that role.
• Appropriateness of the proposed management structures and governance.
• Appropriateness of the partners' contribution to the governance and execution of the project.

Relevance to the call for proposals

Thematic guidelines
The extent to which the project satisfies the guidelines and priorities of the thematic area
• The extent to which the project satisfies the thematic guidelines and delimitations.

Requirements and characteristics of the call
The extent to which the project satisfies the requirements and characteristics of the call and the thematic area
• The extent to which the project satisfies the requirements for partners in the project.
• The extent to which the project satisfies the purpose of competence-building in the research environments.

Administrative procedures

Once the applications have been received, the Research Council will first check that the formal requirements for the design of the application have been met and that the application is based on a submitted outline. Applications that do not meet these requirements will be rejected. 

If the requirements are met, the application will be processed. A panel of experts assesses and arrives at a consensus assessment of each of the three criteria "research quality", "impacts and effects" and "implementation". 

If the referee panel awards a mark of 5 or higher for the three criteria, the administration will assess the criterion "Relevance to the call".  The results of the assessment of the four criteria mentioned above are summarised in an overall mark as an overall expression of the quality of the application. 

Based on the overall mark and an initial portfolio assessment, up to 20 applications with an overall mark higher than or equal to 5 will be invited to an interview where the referee panel and academic advisers from the Research Council will participate. One result of the interview may be that one or more grades are adjusted before the main grade is finally set. Applications that are not invited for an interview will be rejected. 

Applications that have achieved an overall mark of 6 or 7 will be assessed against a set of portfolio criteria to ensure that the portfolio of 4-6 centres covers the three main tracks: impacts, technology and innovation, as well as the guidelines set out by the Research Council's Board and the Portfolio Board for Enabling Technologies. 

Portfolio criteria 

  • Overall, the AI centres will cover the three tracks – societal impacts, technology and innovation – in such a way that the efforts within each of the tracks are significant. 
  • Overall, the AI centres will provide a good breadth of AI and complement each other in terms of research topics and areas of application. 
  • Overall, the AI centres will complement and develop the Research Council's portfolio of research centres with a high level of AI research effort. 
  • Overall, the AI centres will contribute to supplementary funding of national AI research. This can be in the form of own contributions, cash contributions and concrete plans for additional funding. The portfolio board will take into account that the degree and type of supplementary funding for each centre will vary depending on the centre's focus and consortium. 

The portfolio board plans to hold a decision meeting on 10 June 2025. We will publish the results of the application processing after the meeting. 

On the Research Council's website, you can read more about how the Research Council processes applications: How we process applications.

Create application

Applications for Research Centres for Artificial Intelligence (AI Centres) should be created on My RCN Web. Application templates should be filled and uploaded in the application.

Create application

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