Support for Participation in REACH: Incubator Programme for Commercialisation of Research

Start-ups, approved research organisations, and their Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) can apply. See the list of approved research organisations. 

Applicants must have an ongoing or recently completed qualification or verification project funded by the Research Council.

Requirements relating to the Project Owner 

The research organisation/undertaking 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's professional competence and suitability to carry out the project will be assessed. There are no formal requirements for the project manager's qualifications. 

The project manager must be employed by the Project Owner. 

You can apply for reimbursement of the cost of the participation fee. This must be entered under the cost type other operating expenses. Program participants cover all other costs (time/travel/accommodation).  

Conditions for funding 

The projects must start between 9 October 2026 and 1 December 2026. The latest permitted project completion date is 8 July 2027. 

Support to a research organisation or their technology transfer office can only go to the organisation's non-economic activity. It therefore does not constitute state aid. The Research Council assumes that the necessary accounting separation is in place. 

Enterprises will receive the aid as "de minimis aid". This means that the company can receive a maximum of EUR 300,000 over a three-year period. Prior to any payment of de minimis aid, we will request a written confirmation and an overview of all other de minimis aid that the enterprise has received during the last three financial years. For enterprises that are part of a group, the maximum limit generally applies to the group as such. See also the EU de minimis aid regulation (Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/2831). Read more about de minimis aid.

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 handled the consideration of research security in the project. Research security refers to risks associated with unwanted transfer of knowledge and technology, impact on research and innovation, or breaches of research ethics/integrity where knowledge and technology are used to undermine key societal values.

We will pay the support in arrears and you will only be reimbursed for actual costs that have been entered in the institution's or company's accounts.  All reporting must be done electronically.

Please note that you can only submit the application once. If you submit the application and subsequently see that it still needs to be changed, you can create a new application – e.g. as a copy of the one you have already submitted – and in this way submit a new version as long as the call is open for applications. 

• The application and all attachments must be written in English. 
• All attachments must be in PDF format. 

Mandatory attachments 

• Application to Nordic Innovation House for admission to the REACH programme. Uploaded as attachment type "Project description". 
• CV for the project manager and key participants in the project team. Uploaded as attachment type "CV". Use the template that you will find at the bottom of the page. 

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

The application must include information about where the research originates and what research funding from the Research Council has been used, including the project number. 

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. 

Applications that do not satisfy the formal requirements, or do not meet the purpose of the call, will be rejected. 

Only applications that have been submitted to the Nordic Innovation House for admission to the REACH programme will be assessed by the Research Council. Innovation Norway, through Nordic Innovation House, assesses and ranks the applications for participation in REACH. For information about this process, see the website of Nordic Innovation House. 

The Research Council's administration will recommend applications for funding for participation fees based on the recommendation from Innovation Norway. 

The administration then presents the recommendations for a funding decision. It is the Chief Executive who is the granting body and makes the final decision on the award. 

We expect to publish which applications will be awarded by 30 October 2026.