Public basic funding for research institutes

Basic funding is divided into two parts consisting of a basic allocation and strategic institute initiatives. All ministries may allocate funding for strategic institute initiatives in selected areas. At present, the environmental institutes, the primary industry institutes and the foreign policy institutes are receiving funding under this part of the scheme.

The guidelines for public basic funding (in Norwegian only) were laid down by Royal Decree in December 2008 and revised by the Ministry of Education and Research in 2020 and 2021.

The 33 research institutes currently receiving basic funding (pdf in Norwegian only).

The basic allocation comprises a fixed amount and an amount determined by performance.

The performance-based portion of the basic allocation is intended to encourage institutes to seek a good balance between the quality and relevance of the research, and is distributed on the basis of selected performance indicators such as income from nationally commissioned research, income from international sources, scientific publication and facilitation of doctoral degrees.

Requirements for receiving public basic funding

To qualify for basic funding, research institutes must:

• have the main purpose of carrying out independent research and dissemination of research in fields that are relevant to Norwegian business, public governance and/or society.
• have income obtained by participating in a national assignment market. The institute must also have income won in open competition for national and/or international research funds.
• have a reasonable relationship between the total scope of research activity and the institute's academic breadth to ensure sufficient competence and robustness in the institute's research areas.
• develop and maintain a sufficient breadth of competence to be able to present the results of the commissioned research in relevant contexts. The institute must also be able to explain whether the delimitation of an assignment affects the result of the research to a significant extent.
• have professional and scientific competence that is expressed through scientific publications in recognized publication channels.
• be registered in the Norwegian business register.
• be organized and run so that dividends are not paid. A subsidiary in a research group that is 100 per cent owned by another company in the group can pay dividends to the parent company.
• owners or individual enterprises can be given preferential rights to research results that are financed by the basic grant.
• Take an appropriate part in the Norwegian research system.

The Research Council, in consultation with the Ministry of Education, has established four qualification indicators, with associated flag limits, as an elaboration of certain requirements in section 4.1 of the Guidelines. These qualification indicators are described in more detail in the document Utfyllende regler - Reviderte retningslinjer for statlig grunnbevilgning til forskningsinstitutter og forskningskonsern, datert september 2022. (NO)