When you apply for funding from the Research Council, you must enter the expenses necessary to carry out the project in the application form. The application budget consists of how these expenses are distributed over the project period and how they will be financed.
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- The work packages control the expenses and the progress of the project
- The most common costs categories
- Activity categories
When we process the application, we will, among other things, consider whether the budget is realistic and within the framework set out in the call text. If the application is approved, the budget will be the basis for the funding you can receive. It is therefore important that you do thorough work with the budget in the application.
The work packages control the expenses and the progress of the project
The application budget and progress plan are built around work packages. See https://snl.no/arbeidspakke for a short introduction. Every project is different, so the structure and number of work packages you plan for, will naturally vary. We recommend that you plan for a few, but well-defined work packages.
When you create a work package, you must first enter the duration of the work package. We use the work packages' start and end months to calculate the total project period for your project.
You must then decide which activity category the work package belongs to. The activity category is the type of research and development activity that is carried out in the work package. This could be, for example, basic research or experimental development. The categories have an impact on how much funding the project can receive.
Read more under Activity categories.
If you have partners in the project, you must specify which partner is responsible for the implementation of the work package.
You will then be asked to provide a description of the challenges that the work package will help to solve. You may also be asked to describe which activities are included in the work.
It is common that a work package has one or more milestones critical to the progress of the project. We therefore ask you to enter important milestones. If the application is approved, we will use the milestones in the follow-up of the project.
For each work package, you must calculate the costs necessary to carry out the activities in the work package. If the project has partners, the costs must be distributed among the organisation(s) (cost bearers) that have costs in the work package.
When you enter costs in the budget, you first choose the category of cost and which organisation will bear the cost and finally the amount. You will only be able to select the cost categories that are described in the call text. See a description of the most common categories below.
Once you have entered the costs, these are automatically distributed over the work package's period. If you change the start and end dates for the work packages before you submit the application, the accrual costs will be updated automatically.
If the application is approved and thus becomes a project, you can update the dates for work packages and milestones. However, you must carry out the project within the time frames set out in the call and in any other guidelines.
Automatic calculation of funding
Once you have submitted a budget for the individual work packages, we automatically calculate how much funding the project can apply for and how this funding will be distributed throughout the project period. If there are partners in the project, you will also see the distribution between them.
The calculation is based on the activity categories marked in the work packages and on the level of funding the organisations can receive. The funding intensity for activity categories and the sectors to which the organisations participating in the application belong, are described in the call text.
The most common costs categories
Payroll and indirect expenses
Personnel expenses cover salaries and employee costs such as employer's national insurance contributions, holiday pay and pensions. Indirect costs include leasing and operation of land, and funding functions that are necessary to carry out the R&D activities in the project.
Depending on which sector cost bearers belong to, you must budget and report personnel expenses and indirect expenses in the budget according to different guidelines.
- Calculating payroll and indirect expenses for the university and university college sector
- Calculating payroll and indirect expenses for the institute sector
- Calculating payroll and indirect expenses for the business sector, health trusts, the public sector and other applicants
- Collaboration with organisations abroad
Procurement of R&D services
If the call allows for this, you can purchase R&D services for the project. You must link R&D services to an R&D provider that is intended to perform contractual R&D tasks for the Project Owner or for partners. R&D providers must be registered as project partners in the application.
If you choose procurement of R&D services as the cost category, you must also specify which R&D supplier will deliver the service.
Read more about the use of R&D suppliers and subcontractors.
Expenses related to the use of equipment
Here you must budget rental expenses (expenses for use and operation) and depreciation of the institution's own investments and equipment/research infrastructure that are necessary to carry out the project. Typically, such equipment expenses are calculated through a rental location or in the unit of the enterprise that operates the equipment/infrastructure.
The Research Council’s starting point is that equipment/research infrastructure can normally be used by several projects and users. The costs charged to a project must therefore correspond to the project’s respective share of the equipment/infrastructure’s capacity or total operating costs. When entering depreciation in the budget, you must take the following into consideration (the list is not exhaustive):
- The extent to which the equipment/research infrastructure can also be used for purposes other than the purpose of the project.
- You must calculate the proportion of the equipment/research infrastructure’s capacity that the project expects to use. If the project will utilise x per cent of the equipment/research infrastructure’s capacity, x per cent of the depreciation costs may be entered as project costs.
- Whether the depreciation period of the equipment/research infrastructure deviates from the project period.
- The project must not be charged for depreciation that goes beyond the period during which the project uses the equipment/research infrastructure. If the expected lifetime (depreciation period) is set at five years and the project uses the equipment/research infrastructure for three years, only depreciation for these three years must be entered in the project budget.
- The depreciation period must be based on the period of depreciation that the owner of the infrastructure (Project Owner or partner) has used as a basis in its ordinary accounts or in the financing plan for the infrastructure.
If the equipment/research infrastructure is organised as a separate equipment facility/rental location, the cost (price for use) is calculated based on the total costs of the facility/rental location.
The higher education sector has its own guidelines for rental costs.
The following costs must not be entered under "Equipment":
- Smaller-scale procurements (less than NOK 100,000 in acquisition costs) that are necessary to carry out the project must be entered under "Other operating expenses ". Costs that are naturally included in the institution's indirect expenses, such as office equipment, computers, etc., cannot be included here.
- Depreciation for research infrastructure purchased with funds from the Research Council's Infrastructure inititive. For research infrastructure that is co-funded by the Research Council and the institution itself, only the institution's contribution can be used as a basis for calculating depreciation costs.
Other operating expenses
Here you enter costs that are necessary to carry out the project and that are not covered by the other cost categories. In the call for proposals, we provide guidelines for what we approve as necessary costs. This may include costs for:
- planning and implementation of professional events and seminars, user-oriented dissemination activities, etc.
- project participants' travel costs in connection with participation in relevant academic events and seminars
- publication of scientific books (monographs/anthologies) when these are published openly without an embargo
- making research data generated in the project available in line with any data management plan
- data collection and fieldwork, such as board and lodging, local transport, interpreters/field assistance, rental cars, visas, vaccines, etc. Where board and lodging are covered by the employer or others, a fixed administrative supplement can be budgeted instead.
- other materials not covered under equipment
Research stays abroad and visits by visiting researchers must be budgeted as other project costs in an application budget. Read more:
Activity categories
We ask applicants to enter activity categories for work packages to understand what type of research, development or other activities are included in the work package. We use activity categories to calculate funding. The categories of activities for which we provide funding are described in the call text. You will not be able to select other categories in the application form than those stated in the call.
The most common activity categories are:
Feasibility study: evaluation and analysis of a project's potential with the aim of fundinging the decision-making process through an objective and rational demonstration of its strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, identifying the resources required to implement it, and finally assessing its prospects for success.
Fundamental research is experimental or theoretical activity that is primarily carried out to obtain new knowledge about the underlying basis of phenomena and observable facts, without the aim of particular application or use.
Industrial (applied) research is an activity of an original nature that is carried out to obtain new knowledge. However, such research is primarily aimed at specific practical goals or applications.
Experimental development is systematic work that applies knowledge from research and practical experience and produces additional knowledge that is aimed at producing new products or processes or at improving existing products or processes.
When the funding goes to economic activity, for example in a company, the definitions in the state aid rules apply.
If you define a separate work package for project management or other funding activities that are necessary to carry out the project, you must categorise this into the category most commonly used for other activities in the project.
Other categories
We also provide funding for the establishment and operation of research infrastructure. Calls for proposals that provide funding for such activities have their own categories of activities.
Calls that promote the commercialisation of research results will also have their own activity categories.