Loneliness, exclusion and social inequality in health

The purpose of this call is to promote research collaboration between Norwegian research groups and relevant societal and business actors in order to develop new knowledge and build research expertise that is necessary to address important societal challenges.

Funding is available for research that emphasises and explores loneliness and the connection between loneliness, exclusion and social inequality.

Projects must fall under at least one of the following three areas:

• Health-promoting and preventive public health measures
• Diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of diseases
• Quality, interaction and efficiency in the health, care and welfare services

Projects that receive funding must have outcome targets in health and/or health and care and welfare services.

The project must involve end-users of the research. This will help create more relevant and effective measures that can be implemented in practice. In the application, you must describe how both partners and end-user representatives are involved in the planning and implementation of the project and in the utilisation of the results.

We will prioritise applications that include:

• effective and relevant measures that can be implemented in practice
• interaction between the health, care and welfare services
• cross-sectoral cooperation
• Humanities perspectives
• transdisciplinary collaboration that includes relevant actors and end-users
• disabled people and minorities

NOK 15 million has been earmarked for projects with a significant humanities component, to promote humanities perspectives and interdisciplinarity.

Loneliness is a major societal challenge that has received increased attention in recent years. The effect of loneliness on mortality, for example, is comparable to other well-established risk factors such as physical inactivity, smoking and obesity. Loneliness is a subjective experience and can be both social (lack of contact) and emotional (lack of closeness). The effects of social inequality in health and exclusion are both profound and serious – and, like loneliness, can have a direct impact on mortality and quality of life.

Research and innovation are important for preventive and structural measures, treatment and services that can counteract loneliness, exclusion and social inequality in health. Children, young people and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to loneliness and exclusion. Early intervention and inclusive measures in school, working life and society help to strengthen the population's health and quality of life. By counteracting loneliness, exclusion and reducing social inequality, we lay the foundation for a fairer and more sustainable society where everyone has the opportunity to live good and meaningful lives. There is a need for research that can help identify social, cultural, economic and other barriers, develop targeted strategies and ensure that evidence-based methods are implemented in the health and welfare services. The measures must be adapted to the diversity of the population, and ensure that people with different living conditions have equal opportunities for participation, coping and belonging.

The Project Owner must be an approved Norwegian research organisation. You can find an overview of approved research organisations here.

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 the partners.

The project manager's expertise and suitability to carry out the project will be assessed by peers. There are no formal requirements for the project manager's qualifications.

In this call, you are required to include at least two Norwegian collaborating partners (hereinafter referred to as user partners) who are not research organisations, and all collaborating partners must have costs in the project. The user partners must contribute with costs that in total correspond to at least 10.0% of the amount that you seek from us for the project (hereinafter referred to as the participation requirement). Participation may consist of personnel and indirect expenses (e.g. hourly effort) and/or other project costs that are necessary to carry out the project. The costs must be entered in the project budget and be retrievable in the user partners' accounts. Thus, equipment, data sets, unpaid work or the like that are made available for the project without it being accounted for do not count as costs in the project.

Collaborating partners may fully finance their own costs without applying for support from us. Such own financing counts towards the participation requirement.

In addition, the following requirements apply:

• You are to carry out the project in effective collaboration. Read more under Article 25: Important definitions.
• The user partners must be societal or industrial actors who contribute expertise and experience, and who ensure that the project and the objectives of the project address real challenges in society and/or the industrial sector.
• Universities, university colleges and institutes whose main task is to conduct research cannot have the role of social or industrial actor.
• Sole proprietorships can be collaborating partners.
• Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) and Norwegian-registered foreign companies (NUF) do not count toward our requirements relating to collaborating partners.
• The application must be strategically supported by all collaborating partners.
• The Project Owner and collaborating partners must 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 collaborating partner, and between all the collaborating partners. Any subcontractors and the Project Owner or collaborating partners must also be independent of each other. By controlling influence, we mean majority ownership or other specific legal or factual circumstances that mean that one actor can control the other. Read more about such dependencies here.
• The project should have a steering group or reference group in which the collaborating partners are represented.
• The project cannot be commissioned research.

You must describe how the expertise built up in the project can benefit larger user groups.

You cannot include R&D providers in the project.

Foreign organisations similar to Norwegian research organisations are eligible for funding under this call. Other foreign organisations may participate in the project, but are not eligible to receive funding.

Read about collaborating with foreign organisations here.

The Project Owner or collaborating partners may engage subcontractors to deliver services and contribute to the implementation of certain tasks in the project. Subcontractors cannot be given rights to project results.

Organisations that are subject to the regulations for public procurement must carry out the selection of subcontractors in line with these regulations.

Read more about using subcontractors.

If doctoral and postdoctoral research fellows are included in the project and there are specific plans for them to stay abroad, this may be included in the application. We also have a separate call for proposals for research stays abroad for doctoral and post-doctoral research fellows. Here, the project manager can apply for funding for research stays abroad for research fellows who are part of the project during the project period.

If you have specific plans for visiting researchers or stays abroad for researchers in the project, this may be included in the application. The rules for such stays and information about rates can be found on the page about work packages and budgets under the section Other project expenses.

Funding of NOK 4–16 million per project is available under this call.

The following conditions apply to the allocation of funding:

• The funding to the research organisations goes to their non-economic activity in the form of independent research. It therefore does not constitute state aid. The Research Council assumes that the necessary accounting separation between the organisation's economic and non-economic activities is in place.
• The call for proposals has been notified as an aid scheme to the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) and has the reference GBER XX/2026/R&D&I. If an undertaking is to be reimbursed for part of its project costs as a collaborating 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). See the Consolidated Block Exemption Regulation with amendments up to and including June 2023. In addition, the general conditions in Chapter I of the Regulation must be met. Terms and concepts shall be interpreted in accordance with the corresponding terms and concepts in the 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.

The Research Council's conditions for granting and disbursing funding are set out in the General Terms and Conditions for R&D Projects (in Norwegian, English version will be available shortly).

The Research Council requires a high standard of research ethics in the projects we fund. You must provide a brief description of how ethical issues will be handled, to show the panel that you have an appropriate plan for this.

The responsibility for ensuring that the research ethics standard is followed lies with the individual researcher and research organisation (cf. the Research Ethics Act). The panel's assessment and the Research Council's decision regarding funding do not entail any approval of research ethics.

For more information, see the Research Council's page on ethical standards in research.

If your application is awarded funding, you must be aware of the following:

• The project manager and the Project Owner must have assessed and managed any issue of research security in the project. Research security refers to the risks related to undesirable transfer of knowledge and technology, malign influence on research and innovation or violations of research ethics or integrity, where knowledge and technology are used to undermine key societal values.
• Grant recipients in research organisations and the public sector (Project Owners and collaborating partners) 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. Here 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.