Disbursement of funding

As of the 2025 budget year, the Research Council is gross-financed. This also affects the projects that receive funding from us.

All payments from the Research Council are posted in the accounts for the year in which the payment is made, even if they cover costs incurred in the previous financial year. This means that there may be discrepancies between funding and costs incurred per year in our systems, but the total for the project period will still be correct. 

You can see whether the funding for your project will be disbursed automatically or not in the agreement document for your project (see section 6.4).

Our preferred method of payment is a scheme we call "grant payment on invoice". We will only use other payment methods on new projects in exceptional cases.

On this page, you will find more information about:

• Grant payment on invoice
• Automatic payment

Grant payment on invoice

When you receive a grant from us, you can receive the funds as soon as you have documented that you have the actual costs of the project. You do this by sending us an invoice with specifications of the project's incurred costs and the proportion of these that will be covered by the grant.

You can submit invoices as often as you wish, a minimum of one invoice annually and for multi-year projects at least every tertiary. It is paid on the due date when all formalities have been checked and found in order.

Remember this when you send invoices

• The invoice must be sent as an EHF invoice
• The invoice must show the Research Council's project number as a reference.
• Follow the Research Council's requirements for specification of costs and attach a specification of the project costs for the period.
• Do not send consolidated invoices for multiple projects (does not apply to organizations that have a separate agreement on mass invoicing).
• Invoices for grants must not have VAT.

Some projects are still on the Non-automatic payment method of payment. It can be e.g. one-year projects and event support. These invoices as agreed in the contract.

Invoices are paid out on the due date or as soon as the invoice is approved.

Short-term projects that only need to send us one invoice can be submitted as soon as possible after the end of the project, and no later than 20 January 2027.

General information about the content of invoices and follow-up

• Invoices for grants must not have VAT.
• The Project Owner must state the bank account owned by the Project Owner on its grant invoices, as stated in our general terms and conditions for contracts.
• The Project Owner may not send reminders, interest notes, payment requests or debt collection notices for R&D funds.
• We normally disburse received requests for grants on the due date when all formalities have been checked and found to be in order.
• We will take random samples of the specification inserts at regular intervals.
• You can invoice all incurred costs during the period as long as the amount does not exceed the remaining grant for the project. If you send an invoice that exceeds the expected payment for the year, we will process it manually. This may leadto a somewhat longer payment time. Accrued costs that have been recognised but not fallen due during the period may be included in the request for payments.

General invoice deadlines

There are no restrictions on how often you can submit an invoice for grants, but the Project Ownerfor projects with Payment of grants by invoice must invoice the Research Council for grants at least every tertiary, approximately in April, August and December.  

The deadline for submitting invoices is 20 January after the calendar year in which the costs were incurred. The invoice date for invoices sent in January for costs that are accounted for by the grant recipient in December is set to 31 December. These invoices must be created within the first 15 working days of January. Otherwise, it is the enterprise itself that bears responsibility for setting the correct date and due date on the invoice in line with the guidelines in the Bookkeeping Regulation or other applicable guidelines for the enterprise. 

When invoicing, you can set 0 days as due. Then the payment will be queued up and paid out as soon as possible.

For user-driven projects that must submit project accounting reports

The deadline for submitting a project accounting report is 20 January after the calendar year in which the costs were incurred.

In case of project changes

You must report project changes when they occur. See the information page about Project changes.

When collaborating partners are to be reimbursed for costs in the project

Grants from the Research Council that, according to the contract, are to be used to cover the costs of collaborating partners in the project, will be paid to the Project Owner. The Project Owner and the collaborating partners must agree on how and on what terms such funding is to be disbursed from the Project Owner to the collaborating partner(s).

We have no other requirements than that such a collaboration agreement exists.

The Project Owner must ensure that any collaborating partners who are to receive grants keep project accounts for their activities in the project, so that we, or the National Audit Office of Norway (Riksrevisjonen) in the event of an audit, can request documentation of the project's total costs, including those incurred by collaborating partners.

Specification requirements

Grant payment on invoice must be specified for all organisations that are to receive funding from us. The Project Owner is responsible for ensuring that payments to any collaborating partners ("flow-through funds") are specified. If the invoice concerns payments to collaborating partners, the specification must include the organisation name and organisation number or equivalent foreign identifier.

An invoice can cover payments to several organisations, but there must be a specification for each organisation covered by the invoice.

The specification must be at least at the level of cost types that form the basis of the application/project. Cost lines may follow the SRS/NRS account group division (minimum two digits). Unless otherwise agreed, Personnel and indirect costs must be entered as separate cost lines.

Organisations in the higher education sector and organisations in the institute sector with reported hourly rates can enter personnel and indirect costs together on one line.

For each organisation that is to receive payment, the name and organisation number must be stated on the specification, in addition to the costs for the period and the proportion of these that are covered by the Research Council's funding.

(All amounts must be entered in whole Norwegian kroner - NOK)

If more than one organisation receives grant payment on the same invoice: (All amounts must be entered in whole Norwegian kroner.)

Automatic payment

Still most projects receiving Research Council funding will have an agreement on automatic payment three times a year. 

Agreed progress reports and/or financial reports must be submitted and approved before funding can be disbursed. The payment plan is agreed in the contract with the Research Council. It is important that payments to the project are made in step with the costs recorded in the project accounts.

The final report must be submitted and approved by the Research Council before the last agreed payment can be made.

Automatic payment for the first tertiary 2026

Automatic payment for second tertiary 2026

 Automatic payment for third tertiary 2026

For automatic payment, the Research Council sends an overview of the planned payments by email to the Project Owner. The Project Owner sends feedback to the Research Council as stated in the email.