The Societal Significance of Culture
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Important dates
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27 May 2026
Application deadline
01 Feb 2027
Earliest permitted project start
01 Aug 2027
Latest permitted project start
Important dates
About the call for proposals
This call is in a new application system. You can find more information about the new system here.
Purpose
The purpose of this call is to generate new knowledge about the role of culture in social development and to increase the understanding of how art, culture and media development affect sustainability, inclusion, participation, identity and the quality of life in a time of major societal change.
Thematic or subject-specific guidelines
Within the scope of the call, the research must address at least one of the following thematic areas:
- The legitimacy of culture: Justifications for the role of culture and cultural policy in society.
The importance of culture for the individual and society: The impact of art and culture on learning, quality of life and health, identity and community, inclusion and exclusion, diversity and participation.
- Funding, organisation and governance of culture: Public and private funding, professional and voluntary actors and local and national cultural policy.
- Consequences of media and technology development for cultural life and the cultural sector: Digitalisation, artificial intelligence, copyright, creativity and authenticity, freedom of expression and the public sphere, new forms of cultural expression and the sustainability of cultural institutions.
The research must be relevant to Norwegian conditions, but may include international perspectives.
The call is open to all disciplines and methodological approaches.
Delimitations
Projects that primarily concern sports or the voluntary sector are not covered by this call.
Structural guidelines
We do not require collaboration, but it will count as positive if the application includes one or more of the following:
- active collaboration with foreign researchers or research groups
- active collaboration with at least one other national research organisation
- interdisciplinary collaboration at level 1 in UHR's division of subject areas
Prioritisation of applications
We will prioritise:
projects that ensure a balanced thematic distribution both between and within the four main thematic areas in the call
projects with key perspectives from the humanities, e.g. historical, cultural, ethical and normative perspectives
Related calls for proposals
For applications that primarily concern the importance of the cultural field for:
- democracy and democratic citizenship, see the call Democracy as a Form of Governance and Way of Life
- climate challenges and sustainability, see the call Collaboration for a Green and FairTransition
Why we have this call for proposals
Society is facing major changes and challenges, including those related to digitalisation and artificial intelligence, climate and the environment, as well as trust and security and a new media reality. These developments affect how we live, work and interact. Art and culture are important resources for creating meaning and community and for opening up space for reflection and debate. There is a need for research that provides knowledge about how art and culture are affected by and in turn influence the development, and how cultural policy and the cultural sector relate to these changes.
Who can participate in the project?
In addition to our requirement for who can be the Project Owner, we have requirements for the project manager's competence and for who can be collaborating partners.
For all participating organisations, the following applies:
One and the same actor cannot have two different roles in the project. This means that, for example, a subcontractor cannot simultaneously be the Project Owner or a collaborating partner in the project.
Requirements relating to the Project Owner
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 partners.
Requirements relating to the project manager
You must have an approved doctoral degree or equivalent before the application deadline.
If you do not have an approved doctoral degree, but you have associate professor qualifications or are employed as researcher 1, researcher 2 or senior researcher in the institute sector or in a health trust, you can also be a project manager.
Requirements relating to collaborating partners
We do not require collaboration in this call. If you are going to include collaborating partners, the following applies:
- Only approved Norwegian research organisations (see "Who is eligible to apply?" above) or equivalent research organisations in other countries are eligible to be collaborating partners and receive funding under this call.
- Other types of organisations, including companies and other enterprises, may not be collaborating partners.
- All collaborating partners must enter into a collaboration agreement with the Project Owner if they are awarded funding from the Research Council.
Requirements relating to R&D providers
You cannot include R&D providers in the project.
About collaborating with foreign organisations
Foreign organisations similar to Norwegian research organisations are eligible for funding under this call. Other foreign organisations are not eligible to participate in the project.
Using subcontractors in the project
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 in the usual way carry out the selection of subcontractors in line with these regulations.
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 collaborating partners in the project. These costs must be entered in the budget under the cost type to which they belong.
We require that you break down the project budget into the following cost types in your application:
- Payroll and indirect expenses, which are costs related to researcher time (including research fellowship positions and the project manager's position) at the research organisations participating in the project. For doctoral scholarships, the support is limited to three full-time equivalents. For postdoctoral fellowships, the support is limited to a minimum of three years and a maximum of four years. See our website about postdoctoral research fellowship positions and doctoral research fellowship positions.
- Other project expenses, which are costs for other activities that are necessary to carry out the project's R&D activities. Any purchases from subcontractors must be entered here. All costs you enter as other project costs must be specified in the application.
- Equipment, which are costs that include operating and depreciation costs for scientific equipment and research infrastructure necessary to carry out the project.
You are not to use the cost type Procurement of R&D services.
You can find more information about how to set up a budget on our website Set up work packages and budget in the new application system (My page).
Research stays abroad and visiting researchers
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.
Scope of support
Funding of NOK 4 – 11,5 million per project is available under this call. We do not require own financing.
Conditions for funding
We do not award state aid under this call. This means that the funding should only go to your organisation’s non-economic activity. We assume that the necessary accounting separation is in place. Our conditions for funding and the disbursement of funding can be found in our general terms and conditions for funding for R&D projects (in Norwegian, English version will be available shortly).
Practical information
The application must be created and submitted via the Research Council's application system.
Please note that you can only submit the application once. If you submit the application and subsequently discover that it still needs to be changed, you must submit a new application and notify us that the original application is to be withdrawn. When you submit the new application, you must fill in the entire application form again.
You must write the application in English.
You should not link to websites in the application. Any links you provide will not be included in the assessment of the application.
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.
The call is available in both Norwegian and English. The text in the Norwegian call for proposals is legally binding.
Ethical standards
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 Ethical standards in research.
If you are granted funding
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.
Assessment
The panel will assess the application in light of the purpose of the call and the following criteria:
Excellence
- The extent to which the objectives are clear and relevant to the purpose of the call.
- The extent to which the project is ambitious and will challenge the state of the art.
- The extent to which interdisciplinary approaches are adequately addressed.
- The extent to which the gender perspectives in research and/or innovation are adequately addressed.
- The extent to which ethical issues are adequately addressed.
- The extent to which the theoretical approach, research design and choice of methods are credible and suitable.
Impact
- The extent to which the expected impact of the project underpins the purpose of the call.
- The extent to which the results from the project are likely to make significant and important contributions.
- The extent to which the planned results will contribute to achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
- The extent to which the plans to achieve the described impact are credible.
- The extent to which the plans and measures for dissemination and exploitation of the results are suitable for maximising the expected impact.
- The extent to which proper practice for open research is integrated, including the sharing and management of the research results.
- Where relevant, the extent to which the plans for cooperation with stakeholders, including citizens, end users and society in general, are suitable.
Implementation
- The extent to which the project participants’ expertise is complementary and that they as a whole have the necessary expertise.
- The extent to which the project manager has relevant expertise and experience.
- The extent to which the allocation of tasks ensures that all project participants have a clearly defined role and adequate resources to fulfil that role.
- The extent to which the plan for the implementation of the work is clear and realistic with defined milestones, work packages and deliverables.
- The extent to which the proposed management structures and governance are appropriate.
Administrative procedure
Applications that do not satisfy the formal requirements or do not meet the purpose of the call will be rejected. Applications that fall outside the delimitations set out in the call will be rejected without further consideration.
Applications that meet the formal requirements and fall within the scope of the call will be submitted to a panel of at least three panel members for assessment. The panel members make their individual assessments of the application and award a mark per criterion. After they have written the individual assessments, the panel meets for discussion, so that the application receives a joint panel assessment. At the meeting, the panel agrees on a joint panel assessment with grades and written assessments for each of the criteria.
The scale of marks goes from 0 to 5, where 5 is the highest. You can find more information on our information page about Scale of marks and assessment criteria.
Thresholds for marks
- The 15 applications with the highest average mark, i.e. an average mark ≥3.0, and no single mark ≤2, will be processed further.
- All other applications will be rejected.
Assessment of whether the application satisfies the academic, thematic and/or structural guidelines set out in the call
The administration will assess the extent to which the application meets the requirements and the thematic, academic and/or structural guidelines described in the call.
Portfolio assessment and decisions by the portfolio board
The administration makes a recommendation to the portfolio board. Applications can be recommended for allocation or rejection.
The portfolio board makes the decision on allocation or rejection. The decision is based on a portfolio assessment with the aim of identifying the applications that best meet the objectives, guidelines and priorities of the call as a whole.
Feedback on the application
You will receive feedback in the form of a decision letter. This includes written assessments and grades for each assessment criterion and a written justification for the decision.
Expected response to the application
We expect that the Portfolio Board decides which projects will receive funding November/December 2026.
Messages at time of print 16 April 2026, 17:02 CEST