Rates for funding of researcher time in the university and university college sector and for health trusts

Here you will find the Research Council's rates to use when applying for funding of academic staff and indirect costs for projects for the university and university college sector. The rates are also to be used by the health trusts when employees participate as researchers in projects.

"Researcher time" is the working hours that academic staff spend conducting R&D activities. It consists of planning, facilitation, implementation and documentation of the R&D activities. Academic supervision for any research fellows funded by the project is also considered researcher time. 

The Research Council's funding for researcher time is awarded as a lump sum grant to the organisation where the researcher is employed. Funding is to help cover salary, social costs and indirect costs. The rates for full-time equivalents can be divided by 12 man-months or 1628 man-hours.

Rates for 2023 and 2024

The rate for 2023 is NOK 1,244,000 and for 2024 it is NOK 1,312,000. For support for projects of more than one year's duration you can use the same rates as for research fellowships (see Rates for Funding of Research Fellowships).

The rates stipulated for funding may deviate from the costs that the organisation has calculated for researcher time in the budget.

For both the university and university college sector and the health trusts, any difference between the calculated costs for researcher time and the Research Council’s funding rates for this must be covered through own or other financing. This will be clarified in the individual call for proposals.

Sample calculation for a typical Researcher Project

An academic employee uses seven person-months a year for work on the project. The person-year costs under the TDI model are calculated as NOK 1 600 000. The budget for annual payroll and indirect expenses for this individual in the project is then: NOK 1 600 000/12*7 = NOK 933 333. The annual lump-sum rate for Research Council funding for researcher time for 2020 is NOK 1 125 000, or NOK 93 750 per month. The amount of time the researcher spends working on the project sets the ceiling for the amount of funding you may seek from the Research Council, i.e. 7 months per year = NOK 656 250 in this example. This leads to a difference of NOK 277 083 between the costs calculated for researcher time and the funding available from the Research Council. This sum must be covered by own financing from the organisation where the researcher is employed or by some other form of funding.

Calculating costs and funding of researcher time for A full person-year Example: 7 months
Calculated cost for researcher time (TDI model)
(enter in the cost plan under “Payroll and indirect expenses”)
1 600 000 933 333
Maximum funding from the Research Council for researcher time for universities/university colleges/health trusts – rate for 2020 (enter in the funding plan under “Research Council”) 1 125 000 656 250
Applicant’s own share (enter in the funding plan under “Own financing”) 475 000 277 083

Please note that any special conditions and guidelines will be stated in the call for proposals.

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