Industry-oriented Quantum Technology

The purpose of this call is to strengthen Norwegian industry-relevant R&D within quantum technology. The projects must contribute to knowledge, technology and applications that in the short or long term can provide a basis for products, services or processes that will strengthen the competitiveness of both companies and the country.

Projects must focus on one or more areas of quantum technology, such as quantum sensors, quantum devices, quantum communication, quantum computing, or technology that clearly supports the development of quantum technology.

The projects must be carried out in collaboration between companies and research organisations, and must be based on real needs, challenges or opportunities. The results will be useful in further research-based innovation for business development.

Among the applications that are considered eligible for funding, the Research Council will prioritise projects in line with the purpose, guidelines and priorities set out in the call.

• In order to trigger private R&D investments, projects led by companies will be prioritised among the eligible applications.
• At least one project led by a research organisation will be prioritised among the applications eligible for funding.
• If there is a need to prioritise between applications eligible for funding, priority will be given to projects that trigger a large proportion and high levels of private funding.

The Project Owner must either be a research organisation that is on the list of approved research organisations or a company that is registered in the Norwegian Register of Business Enterprises and has economic activity in Norway.

Sole proprietorships, Norwegian-registered foreign businesses (NUF) and TTOs cannot be Project Owners. but sole proprietorships can be partners.

There are no formal requirements for the project manager's competence. The peer reviewers will nevertheless assess whether the project manager has relevant expertise and experience, and whether the project manager is suitable to carry out the project.

Where a company is the Project Owner, the project must include collaboration or R&D delivery from at least one approved Norwegian research organisation.

If a research organisation is the Project Owner, the project must have at least one Norwegian company as a partner.

The Project Owner and the partners must be independent of each other. By this we mean that one cannot have a controlling influence over the other. This applies both between the Project Owner and the partners, and between all the partners.

In the same way, an R&D provider cannot have a controlling influence over the Project Owner/partners or vice versa.

All partners must have identified costs in the project, but they can choose not to have the costs covered through the award.

For sole proprietorships that are to be partners, there are separate rules for the costs we can cover.

In addition to the requirement mentioned under "Requirements relating to collaborating partners", Norwegian and foreign research organisations and other expert communities can participate in the project as R&D suppliers, with responsibility for carrying out R&D work on behalf of the companies in the project.

R&D providers are not required to contribute to financing the project, and therefore do not normally have rights to the project results. They deliver work on commission, and are paid for this work at market price. If an R&D provider is nevertheless to take part in the rights to the project results, the price of the agreed assignment must be adjusted by deducting the market value of the rights from the price.

The R&D provider's contribution shall be regulated in an R&D assignment agreement between the Project Owner and/or partners and the R&D provider.

Where doctoral work is part of the R&D provider's work on the project, you may not impose restrictions on the publication of the doctoral work, with the exception of any pre-agreed postponement of the date of publication.

Read more about the use of R&D providers.

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.

Research organizations can receive a 100% support rate. Support for work packages that only include research organisations is not restricted by the state aid rules.

For companies, Article 25 of the EU Block Exemption Regulation describes in more detail which activities can be supported and which costs of these activities can be covered in whole or in part. Funding may cover direct and indirect project costs to the extent that they are costs related to basic research, industrial research or experimental development.

The degree of support for the company's project costs depends on the size and type of R&D activities of the company (see table below). The aid intensity is calculated separately for each individual company in the project.

If the collaboration in the project meets at least one of the conditions below, the enterprise partners in the project may receive up to 15% collaboration bonus to cover the costs of the R&D project:

• effective cooperation between enterprises where at least one is an SME (see definition of enterprise size here), and no enterprise alone accounts for more than 70% of the eligible costs, or
• effective collaboration between an enterprise and one or more research and knowledge dissemination organisations, where the latter(s) alone bear at least 10% of the eligible costs and have the right to publish their own research results.

This 15% will then be on top of the support rates for industrial research and experimental development in the table above, but upwards limited to 80%.

To ensure full utilisation of the call amount, the Research Council will, if necessary, enter into negotiations with applicants regarding the scope of the projects.

The final amount and percentage of aid will be determined in the letter of allocation.

Read more about state aid here: Article 25: Support for research and development projects.

The call is covered by the state aid rules where the support is awarded to companies. Aid to undertakings must be awarded in accordance with Article 25 of the General Block Exemption Regulation and the general conditions in Chapter I of the Regulation. See the Consolidated Block Exemption Regulation with amendments up to and including June 2023.

Aid may not be granted to undertakings that have not complied with the requirements for repayment pursuant to a previous decision by ESA or the European Commission where the aid has been declared illegal and incompatible with the internal market. Nor may aid be granted to undertakings in difficulty within the meaning of EEA law.

Support for research organisations' non-economic activity in the form of independent research does not constitute state aid. The Research Council assumes that the necessary accounting separation between economic and non-economic activities is in place.

This call constitutes an aid scheme that must be notified to the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) and has the reference: GBER XX/2026/R&D&I.

The Research Council's conditions for allocations can be found in our general terms and conditions for grants for R&D projects. (Norwegian only)

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:

• You cannot have started any of the activities in the project before you submit the application. If you intend to submit an application for other funding schemes (including SkatteFUNN) for the project, you can read more about the incentive effect and combination of policy instruments here.
• You must cover all costs that may arise from the time you submit the application until you receive the letter of allocation from us.
• Funding from other public actors for the project or for activities included in the project may affect the scope of the Research Council's funding.
• If you receive state aid from us that is equivalent to EUR 100,000 or more, we will make it known in the Register for State Aid .
• 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.