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

The grants will support master's and doctoral students, as well as more experienced researchers.

You can apply for funding for one named project manager (student/researcher). You cannot transfer funding 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. 

We want to stimulate researchers employed by Norwegian research organisations to take advantage of the research opportunities in Ny-Ålesund. NOK 1 million of the total funding is earmarked for projects based in Ny-Ålesund, and where the project manager is employed by a Norwegian approved research organisation. 

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 you are applying for funding, and who will carry out the fieldwork. He/she must be a master's student, a doctoral student, or a more experienced researcher, and as a general rule registered as a master's student/doctoral student or employed by the Project Owner. 

Project managers who are not employed by or registered as a master's or doctoral student with the Project Owner are eligible for funding through this AFG call if their project is carried out in close collaboration with the Project Owner. 

Requirements relating to collaborating partners 

You should not list any collaborating partners in the application form, but these should be mentioned in the project description. You are therefore not to enter costs or funding for collaborating partners in the budget. 

Scope of support 

You can apply for a maximum of NOK 130,000. 

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 costs of a maximum of one field assistant only if it is necessary for safety reasons. We only cover travel expenses 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 expenses for fieldwork, as the support is not intended to fully fund a project. We provide support to cover direct expenses related to field-based collection of data and samples for a project, as well as an additional 5 per cent for the Project Owner. 

A template for the budget with price limits is available at the end of this call. 

You must specify the following items in the application form: 

• Travel to Svalbard 
• Cost of stay 
• Local transport 
• Purchasing 
• Equipment rental costs 
• Rental of facilities in Ny-Ålesund 
• Institutional supplement (5 per cent of the total) 
• Field assistant (if needed for safety reasons) 

You cannot use the support 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 kind of 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 (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 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 Owner must submit two reports one month after the end date of the project, a research and field report and a financial report. An EHF invoice for consumption must be submitted together with the financial report. 

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

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 PDFs via My RCNWeb. 

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 for funding by the institution in accordance with the budget. You must document any allowances. 

The Research Council disburses the funding in arrears after the final report has been approved, 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 up until the application deadline. We recommend that you submit the 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 Owner must be the correct category. 
• The project manager must meet the requirements. 
• 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 correct template for the budget, so that it is clear what funding is being sought for. 
• The requested attachments must be attached and in the correct template. 
• The application and 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 

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

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 other attachments than those specified above. Please 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:

We will prioritise projects 

• with a female project manager when the applications are otherwise assessed in the same way. 

Applications will be processed administratively by a panel consisting of representatives from the Research Council and external peers with experience from Svalbard. The final decision on funding will be made administratively by the Research Council. No individual feedback or marks will be made available to applicants after the application process has been processed. 

We expect to publish which applications will be awarded by 15 January 2027.