All applicants must familiarise themselves with the general requirements for the application. A detailed description of these and other application requirements can be found in the call for proposals and in the associated application form. Applications that do not meet the requirements set out in the call will be rejected.
The requirements for an application will vary from call to call. Therefore, read the call text and associated information carefully, in addition to the guidance texts in the application form itself.
If the application is approved, the Research Council's general terms and conditions apply to R&D projects. We therefore recommend everyone to familiarise themselves with these before submitting the application.
Who submits an application to the Research Council?
We fund organisations and not private individuals. It is the organisations that formally submit the application and are responsible for ensuring that all information in the application is correct.
The organisations that may receive support are also responsible for complying with the conditions set out in the funding decision. They must also follow all the guidelines for project follow-up. See more information about project reporting.
In the application, you choose the organisation that formally submits the application. This organisation becomes the Project Owner. As a general rule, this organisation must be Norwegian.
Organisations can also participate in projects as partners. The Project Owner, organisation and any partners share responsibility for ensuring that the application is correct.
All organisations participating in an application must have an organisation representative who can confirm the organisation's role in the application. The organisation representative must therefore have a position within the organisation that authorises the Project Owner to represent and commit the Project Owner to the Research Council.
The organisation representatives must confirm that the organisation is behind the application before we can process it.
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The project manager is professionally responsible
In the application, you must also include the name of the person who will be the project manager if the application is approved. The project manager is responsible for the academic implementation of the project. We therefore often set requirements for the project manager's qualifications. You can find information about this in the call.
Gender equality plan (GEP)
All grant recipients (Project Owner, organisation and partners) must have a Gender Equality Plan available on their website. The GEP must be in place before the project can receive funding from us. The requirement does not apply to businesses, notable interest organisations, or non-profit sectors.
Ethical guidelines
Projects funded by the Research Council are required to maintain high ethical standards and comply with fundamental principles of research ethics.
Approval from the Norwegian Regional Committees for Medical and Health Research Ethics (REK) is required for all types of medical and health research projects that include trials on humans or involve human biological material.
Approval from REK is also required for the establishment of research biobanks.
More detailed information is available on the REK website.
Data management plans
The Research Council has stipulated requirements relating to self-archiving and open access to scientific articles produced in connection with the R&D projects it funds. We will ask the Project Owner to draw up a data management plan for all projects awarded funding.
The Project Owner must assess the need for a data management plan for all projects awarded funding. This must be explained if the Project Owner believes there will be no need for such a data management plan.
Read more about our principles for Open Science.
Requirements relating to the protection of personal data in the project
By our general terms and conditions for projects, the Project Owner must comply with applicable laws and regulations. This includes data protection legislation.
All the country's universities and most university colleges, in addition to many health trusts and research institutes, have entered into agreements with Sikt, the Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research, on privacy services. Research projects at these institutions must submit a notification form to Sikt if personal data is to be processed. Here you can fill out the notification form for personal data within research or visit the Norwegian Data Protection Authority's website for more information on processing personal data in research.
Most research organisations also have internal data protection officers and/or data protection contacts.
If you have any questions about how the Research Council collects and processes personal data in applications and in project reports, please see our privacy statement.
Gender perspectives and gender balance in projects
Gender perspectives must be incorporated as an integral part of all the research we fund. We will facilitate strengthening the recruitment of women to disciplines where the percentage of women is low and we will develop measures to increase the proportion of women in permanent academic positions.
Read more about Gender balance and gender perspectives in research and innovation.
Charter and Code
Research funded by the Research Council must be conducted in accordance with the principles set out in the EU's recommendation "The European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct of the Recruitment of Researchers" (Charter and Code).
Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI)
We place emphasis on the projects' possible consequences for society and the environment. The application must therefore provide an account of any utilisation of the results of the projects within the framework of responsible research and innovation.
Read more about responsible research and innovation.
Research security
A changed geopolitical context requires increased attention to research security in R&D activities. The Research Council expects all organisations participating in applications and project managers to assess the risk profile and any measures for projects for which funding is sought.
Read more about research security.