Support for a National Network for Women's Health Research
Important dates
Mid-December 2026
Expected response to the application
01 Jan 2027
Earliest permitted project start
01 Apr 2027
Latest permitted project start
31 Mar 2031
Latest permitted project completion date
Important dates
Purpose
The objective of the call is to establish a national network for women's health research that will contribute to better national coordination of existing research groups, so that resources are utilised more efficiently and dialogue is strengthened. At the same time, the network is encouraged to actively mobilize new professional communities to engage in the women's health field through targeted recruitment and the establishment of new collaboration arenas. This will help facilitate the active participation of Norwegian research communities in relevant national and international projects and forums.
About the call for proposals
Guidelines for the call:
Funding will be used to establish a national network for women's health research that includes all relevant research groups in Norway.
The network will bring together relevant research communities, create meeting places and collaboration arenas, and stimulate better utilisation of health registries, biobanks and research infrastructure in the development of new research projects.
The network will contribute to national coordination, interaction and utilisation of existing resources, as well as cooperation between private and public actors, funds and foundations, various parts of the health service, research organisations, the voluntary sector and patient and user organisations.
The network should include the part of the health industry relevant to women's health ('femtech').
The network is encouraged to actively mobilise new professional communities to engage in the women's health field through targeted recruitment and the establishment of new arenas for collaboration.
In the application, you must be able to demonstrate how kvinnehelseportalen.no, which is a digital infrastructure, will contribute to increased dissemination and interaction.
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?
Only approved Norwegian research organisations are eligible to apply. See the list of approved research organisations.
Who can participate in the project?
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 must have an approved doctoral degree or achieved associate professor qualifications before the application deadline. For the purposes of this call, being or having been employed as researcher 1, researcher 2 or senior researcher in the institute sector is considered to be associate professor competence.
The project manager must be a permanent employee of the Project Owner's administrative unit, and must be the academic leader of one of the research groups that are part of the network for which you are applying for funding.
Requirements relating to partners
Approved Norwegian research organisations may participate as partners in the project and receive funding.
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.
You can apply for support for the work of organising the network activities, the costs of preparing and conducting meetings and travel costs associated with meetings.
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 and collaborating partners that are other research organisations.
- Other operating expenses, which are costs for other activities that are necessary to carry out the project. All costs entered as "Other operating expenses" must be specified in the application.
The cost types Equipment and Procurement of R&D services are not to be used.
You will 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 are awarded funding 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 managed the consideration of research security in the project.
- Grant recipients in research organisations and the public sector (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 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
Health
Practical information
Requirements for this funding scheme
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 mandatory 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.
Mandatory attachments
- Project description: Use the standard template that you can download at the bottom of the page.
- CV for the project manager. 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.
Optional attachments
- CV for key participants in the project, use the standard template that you download at the bottom of the page.
- You will assess which project participants are the most important, and in which cases it will be of importance for the application processing to assess the project participants' qualifications.
- If you wish, you can attach a brief description of competence or suggestions for up to three peers you believe will be suitable to assess your application. We are not obliged to use the proposals, but can do so if necessary.
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 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.
Assessment criteria
Applications will be assessed in light of the purpose of the call and the following criteria:
Excellence
• The extent to which the concept is sound, credible and novel.
Solidity
• The extent to which the project objectives are clear and relevant.
• The quality of the proposed deliverables from the project.
Impact
• The extent to which the expected effects are specified.
• The extent to which expected impacts on the system and societal levels are specified.
Knowledge sharing and exploitation
• The quality of the proposed communication and dissemination activities.
• The extent to which it is credible that the proposed outputs will contribute to the specified effects and impact.
Implementation
• The extent to which the Project Manager and project group are qualified and have the necessary expertise and are positioned to implement the project.
• The extent to which management structures and procedures are appropriate.
Plans and management
• The extent to which the work plan is clear and understandable, and the time table realistic
• The extent to which objectives and measures are coherent.
• The extent to which the project has the support of the leadership of the Project Owner and any partners, and the allocation of roles in the project is clear.
• The extent to which the budget is realistic and appropriate, and resources are allocated so that each of the partners can fulfil their role.
• The extent to which potential risks have been discussed.
Relevance to the call for proposals
Administrative procedures
Applications that do not satisfy the formal requirements will be rejected.
The Research Council of Norway may reject applications where the Project Owner or any partner has significantly breached its obligations in other projects funded by the Research Council within the two years prior to the submission of the application.
The application may be rejected if the project manager has been convicted of misconduct by the Joint Integrity Committee or the Investigation Committee in the last two years prior to the submitted application.
Applications that meet the formal requirements will be assessed by an international referee panel that will make an assessment based on the criteria set out in the call.
The administration will carry out a relevance assessment based on how well the application complies with the guidelines for the call.
The administration prepares a recommendation based on the assessment of the applications and an overall portfolio assessment. The portfolio board for health then makes a decision on allocation.
We expect to publish which applications will be awarded funding in mid-December 2026.