Large Interdisciplinary Researcher Project (Thematic Call)
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Tildelingsmøtene for denne utlysningen holdes i ukene 25 og 39. Vi publiserer resultatet så fort dette er klart etter møtene.
Important dates
22 Jan 2025
Open for applications
05 Mar 2025
Application deadline
01 Oct 2025
Earliest permitted project start
01 Apr 2026
Latest permitted project start
31 Mar 2032
Latest permitted project completion date
Important dates
Last updates
We have updated the General Terms and Conditions for R&D Projects. These new terms and conditions apply to applications received by the Research Council of Norway from 1 March 2025. Please see What the contract involves.
We have added a section on sustainability under Administrative procedures
Purpose
The purpose is to move the research front in climate and nature risk – effects, consequences and solutions for society through interdisciplinary projects with larger allocations. We support researchers from different disciplines who together will generate new knowledge that would not have been possible to achieve without interdisciplinary collaboration. Applicants must have demonstrated the ability to conduct research of high scientific quality.
About the call for proposals
Our aim is to stimulate research collaboration that will solve challenges that require interdisciplinarity. By interdisciplinarity, we mean that the researchers in the project must represent two or more different subject groups as defined at level 2 of the Norwegian Division into Scientific Disciplines (in Norwegian only) (PDF, opens in a new window), prepared by the Norwegian Council for Higher Education (UHR).
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In addition to this call, we have four others with a deadline 5 March that are aimed at research organisations. These calls are:
In the thematic texts of this call, you will find information on which of the other calls may be relevant to the individual topic. We therefore recommend that you also read through any other relevant calls to see which one is most suitable for your project. Please note that we do not move applications between the calls, and that it is therefore important to apply to the correct call. |
You can create an application and fill in the application form from 22 January.
- Here you can see a video presentation of how to fill out the application form. The video is from 2024, and the dates mentioned relate to the deadlines in March last year. The general content of the video, however, is still relevant to our calls with deadline 5 March this year.
- Watch the recording of the applicant webinar on the March deadlines for researchers.
The call is available in both Norwegian and English. The text of the Norwegian call for proposals is legally binding.
We reserve the right to make changes to the call after we have received the letter of allocation for 2025.
Who is eligible to apply?
Only approved Norwegian research organisations are eligible to apply. See the list of approved research organisations.
Who can participate in the project?
Requirements relating to the Project Owner
The research organisation listed as the Project Owner in the application form must have approved the submission of the application to the Research Council.
Requirements relating to the project manager
You can only serve as project manager for one application submitted for the deadline of 5 March 2025. This means that if you are the project manager for an application under this call, you cannot serve as the project manager for applications for any of the other calls with a deadline of 5 March 2025.
You must have an approved doctoral degree or equivalent before the application deadline.
If you do not have an approved doctoral degree, but have associate professor qualifications or employment as a researcher 1, researcher 2 or senior researcher in the institute sector or in a health trust, you can also apply.
Requirements relating to partners
The projects must be interdisciplinary and include collaboration between researchers from different disciplines. If the collaboration is between researchers at different institutions, the institutions must be listed as partners. For partners, the following applies:
Only approved Norwegian research organisations (see "Who is eligible to apply?" above) or equivalent research organisations in other countries may be partners and receive funding for a Researcher Project.
Other types of organisations, including companies and other enterprises, may not be partners in research projects.
As the Project Owner or partner in the project, you can engage subcontractors to deliver services and contribute to the implementation of certain tasks in the project. Subcontractors cannot be given rights to project results. Organisations that are subject to the regulations for public procurement must in the usual way carry out the selection of subcontractors in line with these regulations. You cannot have R&D suppliers in the project.
Read more about the use of R&D providers and subcontractors
One and the same actor cannot have two different roles in the project. This means that a subcontractor cannot be the Project Owner or a partner in the project at the same time.
What can you seek funding for?
You can apply for funding to cover the actual costs necessary to carry out the project. The Project Owner must obtain information on costs from the partners in the project. These costs must be entered in the cost plan under the cost type to which they belong.
We require that you break down the project budget into the following cost types in your application:
- Payroll and indirect costs, which relates to researcher time (including research fellowship positions and the project manager's position) at the research organisations participating in the project. For doctoral scholarships, the support is limited to three full-time equivalents. For postdoctoral fellowships, the support is limited to a minimum of three years and a maximum of four years. See our website about post-doctoral research fellowship positions and doctoral research fellowship positions.
- Equipment, which includes operating and depreciation costs for scientific equipment and research infrastructure necessary to carry out the project.
- Other operating expenses, which are expenses for other activities necessary to carry out the project's R&D activities. Any purchases from subcontractors must be entered here, and if the purchase is more than NOK 100,000, it must be specified, otherwise all costs you enter as "other operating expenses" must be specified in the application.
The item Procurement of R&D services cannot be used.
If doctoral and postdoctoral research fellows are included in the project and there are specific plans for them to stay abroad, or if there are specific plans for visiting researchers or stays abroad for researchers in the project, this may be included in the application. The rules for such stays and information about rates can be found on the budget information page (see link below).
You will find detailed and important information on the website about what to enter in the project budget.
Scope of funding
Funding of NOK 12–25 million per project is available under this call.
We do not require that you provide own funding. However, if our lump sum rates do not cover all costs for recruitment positions in the university and university college or institute sector or for research positions in the university and university college sector, we assume that you cover the difference with your own funding. For research positions in the institute sector, you must use the reported hourly rates.
Ethics
The Research Council requires a high standard of research ethics in the projects we fund, and ethics is included in the assessment criterion for Research Quality. In the template for the project description, there is a separate section that deals with this. The description of ethics is first and foremost an assurance to the peers that there is a plan in place to deal with the most important ethical dilemmas in the project. If you need to describe this in more detail, this can be done elsewhere in the project description, for example under method selection, or you can do so in the data management plan(s) (see below).
The responsibility for compliance with the research ethics standard lies with the individual researcher and research institution (cf. The Act on the Organisation of Research Ethics). The panel's assessment and the Research Council's decision on funding do not entail any research ethics approval.
Conditions for funding
We do not award state aid under this call. This means that the funding should only go to their non-economic activity. We assume that the necessary accounting separation is in place. Our conditions for awarding and disbursing support for the first year, and any commitments and payments for subsequent years, can be found in our general terms and conditions for R&D projects on the information page What the contract consists of.
If you are granted the project, the following must be in place when you revise the application:
- The project manager and the Project Owner must have assessed and managed any issue of research security in the project. Research security refers to the risks related to undesirable transfer of knowledge and technology, malign influence on research and innovation or violations of research ethics or integrity, where knowledge and technology are used to undermine key societal values.
- All grant recipients that are research organisations public sector bodies (Project Owners and partners) must have a Gender Equality Plan (GEP) available on their websites. This must be in place before the contract is signed for projects with grants from us. The requirement does not apply to the private sector, interest groups or the voluntary sector.
- The Research Council requires full and immediate open access for scientific articles, see Plan S - open access to publications.
- For all projects that handle data, the Project Owner must prepare a data management plan in connection with the revised grant application. Here you will find more information about requirements for data management plans in projects that receive funding from the Research Council.
- The Project Owner is responsible for selecting which archiving solution(s) to use for storing research data generated during the project.
- For medical and health-related studies involving human participants, the Research Council stipulates special requirements and guidelines for registration and disclosure of medical and health-related studies involving human participants.
Relevant thematic areas for this call
The topics in this call are grouped into the thematic areas below. The topics contain special requirements and guidelines that will be emphasised in the assessment of the application.
Climate and the environment
Changes in the climate and natural conditions affect Norway and the polar regions to a considerable extent, and the risk of major societal effects increases. This is about both large-scale processes of change as well as local changes and individual events. We need new knowledge about the risks posed by anthropogenic pressures on climate and nature, and the consequences they may entail for nature and society. The research will also contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of risk, so that society can prevent, limit and adapt to changes to the climate and in nature. The topic covers climate and nature risks related to land, freshwater, coastal areas and the sea. You can apply for up to NOK 25 million.
Delimitations
The applications must fall under the following research areas:
- Overall pressure on ecosystems and ecosystem services. Consequences of multiple influences and processes of change for nature's basic functions and resilience, including cumulative effects and any tipping points.
- Land meets coast meets sea. Pressures that contribute to, or may contribute to, ecosystem changes in the transition between land and sea and the risks and consequences that the various pressures may have, e.g. pollution, environmental toxins, plastics, alien species, flooding, runoff, acidification, higher temperatures and sea level rise.
- Risk understanding and solutions. Better and more comprehensive knowledge of societal risk based on processes, pressures and the state of the climate and nature, as a starting point for measures, instruments and solutions for sustainable management of nature.
The project must combine a minimum of 2 of the three research areas. The applications must be relevant to Norwegian conditions and/or the polar regions.
The project will establish a reference group with relevant users. In the application, you must explain the composition of the reference group, its connection to the project implementation and how it will contribute to the achievement of the project's objectives, particularly with regard to having the results put to use.
Relevance
The application's relevance will be assessed on the basis of:
- how well it hits at least two of the three research areas listed above. This must be clearly stated in the relevance appendix.
- the relevance to Norwegian conditions or the polar regions.
We are also announcing up to NOK 120 million for climate and nature risk – effects, consequences and solutions for society, as part of the call Researcher Project for Scientific Renewal.
Contact
Other relevant calls for proposals on the same topic
Food and bioresources
The Portfolio Board for Food and Bioresources wants to invest in research that supports the social mission of sustainable feed for livestock and farmed fish. The report from the design phase of the social mission pointed to several barriers to new feed raw materials being further developed on a commercial scale or being put into use. Among these are obstacles in the food safety regulations for the use of some new, sustainable feed raw materials. For some of these raw materials, it is likely that new knowledge will be able to show that the feed raw materials are safe, and thus contribute to changes in the regulations and enable their use in feed in the relatively short term. There is also a need for basic research to support further development in the production and application of sustainable feed raw materials.
Delimitations
Projects must fall under one of the following research areas:
- Research that contributes to the development and/or application of sustainable feed raw materials. This includes (not limited to) production, harvesting and use of biological raw materials, processing into raw materials that are planned to be included in feed, technical/physical quality of feed production, nutritional suitability and/or effect on health and welfare. Projects that primarily focus on the production or harvesting of a biological raw material or feed raw material should include studies of its use in feed and nutritional suitability. The research area is open to issues in the natural sciences, social sciences and/or cross-cutting issues that include the humanities. Where relevant, the project should highlight possible dilemmas in using biological feed raw materials while maintaining biodiversity and safeguarding the climate.
- Research to close knowledge gaps that currently cause barriers in the food safety regulations for the use of a feed raw material and where it can be substantiated that new knowledge can remove the barriers. The application must describe in the relevance appendix both points a and b:
a) why a lack of knowledge is currently a barrier in the regulations
b) make it probable that new knowledge will be able to remove this barrier in the relatively short term.
The application must describe in the relevance appendix which of the two areas it primarily targets.
We encourage cross-sectoral projects.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the Ministry of Education and Research are allocating funding for this call. The allocation of projects must reflect the funds allocated by the respective ministries.
Relevance
Priority will be given to applications that meet at least one of the thematic areas set out in the call.
Portfolio assessments
The portfolio board takes into account the following factors when allocating funds:
- the marks awarded in the assessment of the applications
- a good thematic distribution of projects in the portfolio
In practice, this means that the portfolio board can allocate funds to projects of poorer quality, rather than projects of better quality, in order to achieve the goal of a good distribution of projects in the portfolio or to use up the available funds.
Contact
Other relevant calls for proposals on the same topic
Practical information
Requirements for this funding scheme
The application must be created and submitted via My RCN Web. You can change and submit the application several times until the application deadline. We recommend that you submit your application as soon as you have completed the application form and uploaded the required attachments. When the application deadline expires, it is the version of the application that was submitted most recently that we process.
The application must meet the following requirements:
- The application and all attachments must be written in English, with the exception of the description of relevance to the topic, which you can write in Norwegian or English.
- All attachments must be in PDF format.
- Mandatory attachments must be included.
- Requirements relating to the Project Manager and the Project Owner must be met.
- The project must start between 1 October 2025 and 1 April 2026.
- You must clearly demonstrate that the project is within the priorities described in the topic from which you are applying for funding.
The application may be rejected if it does not meet the requirements in the list above.
Mandatory attachments
- Project description, maximum 15 pages
- CV for the project manager
- description of relevance to the topic
Applications that do not meet the requirements above will be rejected. You must use standard templates for all required attachments. The templates can be found at the bottom of the call.
Optional attachments
- CVs for the most important project participants, each of a maximum of four pages. It is mandatory to use the CV template at the bottom of the call.
- You may assess which project participants are the most important, and in which cases it will be of importance for the application processing to assess the project participants' qualifications.
- If you wish, you can attach a brief description of competence or suggestions for up to three peers you believe would be suitable to assess your application. We are not obliged to use the suggestions, but can use them if necessary.
All attachments to the application must be submitted with the application. We do not accept attachments submitted after the application deadline unless we have requested additional documentation.
We will not consider documents and links to websites in the application, or attachments other than those specified above. Be careful to upload the correct attachment type, as there are no technical restrictions on what kind of templates it is possible to upload in the application form.
Assessment criteria
Applications will be assessed in light of the purpose of the call and the following criteria:
Excellence – potential for advancing the state-of-the-art
• Scientific creativity and originality.
• Novelty and boldness of hypotheses or research questions.
• Potential for development of new knowledge beyond the current state-of-the-art, including significant theoretical, methodological, experimental or empirical advancement.
Excellence – quality of R&D activities
• Quality of the research questions, hypotheses and project objectives, and the extent to which they are clearly and adequately specified.
• Credibility and appropriateness of the theoretical approach, research design and use of scientific methods. Appropriate consideration of interdisciplinary approaches.
• The extent to which appropriate consideration has been given to ethical issues and gender dimension in research content, and the use of stakeholder/user knowledge if appropriate.
Impact
• Potential for academic impact:
The extent to which the planned outputs of the project address important present and/or future scientific challenges.
The extent to which the planned outputs are openly accessible to ensure reusability of the research outputs and enhance reproducibility.
• Potential for societal impact (if addressed by the applicant):
The extent to which the planned outputs of the project address UN Sustainable Development Goals or other important present and/or future societal challenges.
• The extent to which the potential impacts are clearly formulated and plausible.
Communication and exploitation
• The extent to which the appropriate open science practices are implemented as an integral part of the proposed project to ensure open sharing and wide distribution of research outputs.
• Quality and scope of communication and engagement activities with different target audiences, including relevant stakeholders/users.
Implementation
• The extent to which the project manager has relevant expertise and experience, and demonstrated ability to perform high-quality research (as appropriate to the career stage).
• The degree of complementarity of the participants and the extent to which the project group has the necessary expertise needed to undertake the research effectively.
The quality of the project organisation and management
• Effectiveness of the project organisation, including the extent to which resources assigned to work packages are aligned with project objectives and deliverables.
• Appropriateness of the allocation of tasks, ensuring that all participants have a valid role and adequate resources in the project to fulfil that role.
• Appropriateness of the proposed management structures and governance.
Relevance to the chosen topic
• The extent to which the project satisfies any other priorities in the text for the chosen topic.
Administrative procedures
We will assess your application as it has been submitted. It is not relevant how an identical or approximately similar application has previously been assessed by us.
Here you can read more about the processing procedure for Researcher Projects.
Once the application deadline has passed, we will first check that all formal requirements are met. Applications that do not satisfy the formal requirements will be rejected.
The Research Council of Norway may reject applications where the Project Owner or any partner has significantly breached its obligations in other projects funded by the Research Council within the two years prior to the submission of the application.
The application may be rejected if the project manager has been convicted of misconduct by the Joint Integrity Committee or the Investigation Committee in the last two years prior to the submitted application.
Applications that are outside the thematic limitations set out in the call will not be eligible for funding. This also applies to applications that include partners that do not meet the requirements set out in the call. Decisions on this are made by the individual portfolio boards.
Where the requirements are met, we will make the application, with all mandatory attachments, available in an online portal for referees who individually assess the criteria Research quality – potential for advancing the research frontier, Research quality – quality in R&D activities, Impacts and Implementation. The referees will then meet in thematic panels where they will reach a consensus assessment of the application for each of the four criteria.
The referees assess the applications for open research practice as part of the criterion Impact. On this website, you will find more information about the assessment of open science in grant applications.
If, following the panel’s assessment, the application exceeds a threshold value, the Research Council's case officers will assess the application on the basis of the criterion "Relevance to the chosen topic". The threshold value will be set based on how many applications each topic receives, the marks after the referee panel has assessed them and how much funding is available.
The assessment of the five above criteria is summarised in an overall mark for the application. The Research Council's administration then creates ranking lists based on this grade.
Finally, it is the portfolio boards that decide whether the applications will receive funding or not. Their decisions are based on the ranking lists and an overall portfolio assessment.
The Research Council will fund projects that will contribute on the road to a low-emission society in line with the Paris Agreement. In cases where two projects have received otherwise equal assessments, the portfolio board will prioritise the project that is most sustainable in terms of effects on climate, the environment and society.
On this website you will find more information about portfolio valuation
About the results of the application assessment process
- Total amount sought
- 683 263000
- Amount awarded
- NOK 74 917 000
- Total number of applications
- 28
- Number of approved applications
- 3
Project no. | Organization | Project title | Subject | Sought | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 358529 | HAVFORSKNINGSINSTITUTTET | Upcycling fish sludge to sustainable feed material: From environmental waste problems to sustainable feed solutions (Up-Sludged) | Mat og bioressurser | NOK 24 917 000 | 25.09.2025 |
| 358756 | Norsk polarinstitutt | Disentangling land-coast-ocean connections at Bouvetøya, the most remote marine ecosystem hotspot in the Southern Ocean | Klima og miljø | 25 000 000 | 26.09.2025 |
| 358021 | NTNU | StrawberryWalls – integrating plant parasitology, ecology and biomechanics to support crop adaptation to climate change | Klima og miljø | 25 000 000 | 26.09.2025 |
Messages at time of print 12 October 2025, 02:05 CEST