Supplementary Funding for Ongoing Projects to Enhance Knowledge and Results Transfer from ICT Research to the Defence Sector

Only approved Norwegian research organisations that are Project Owners for an ongoing Researcher Project or collaborative project in the Research Council's ICT research portfolio are eligible to apply. See the list of approved research organisations.

Requirements relating to the Project Owner 

The Project Owner must be identical to the person listed in the contract for the ongoing project. The research organisation listed as the Project Owner in the application form must have approved the submission of the application. 

If the application is a collaboration between several organisations, the Project Owner must submit the application on behalf of all partners. 

Requirements relating to the project manager  

The project manager must be identical to the one stated in the contract for the ongoing researcher/collaboration project. 

Requirements relating to partners 

Partners in the reinforcement project should preferably have formal roles in the ongoing project. We accept partners other than those who participate/have participated in the ongoing project when it provides added value in the reinforcement project. You must account for this added value in the application. 

Approved Norwegian research organisations may participate as partners in the project and receive funding. Companies cannot participate as partners in the supplementary application, even if they are part of the ongoing collaborative project. 

The objective of the call is to link national research groups to the defence sector, and the call does not allow for international research organisations to receive funding. 

You can apply for funding for specific major measures and activities that are not already part of the ongoing project. 

Activities covered can be: 

• to provide the project with a new partner or resource representing the defence sector 
• mobility in or out of the project for the transfer of knowledge and results between the project and representatives from the defence sector, for example by project participants visiting actors in the defence sector and/or employees in the defence sector visiting research partners 
• extra efforts to disseminate or exploit results from the project that lead to the transfer of expertise and results to the defence sector and/or that realise synergies with other technology initiatives in the defence sector. The activities can be series of working meetings with relevant actors, dissemination activities such as the establishment of communication channels and networks, or other activities. 
• new doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships for candidates who can be security cleared to a minimum of "Secret".  We recommend that any PhD candidates who are employed in a company or in a public enterprise investigate the possibilities of applying for an Industrial PhD – Doctoral Project in a Company or a Public Sector PhD – Doctoral Project in the Public Sector.  

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 expenses, which are costs incurred by the Project Owner's organisation and partners.  
• Other operating expenses, which are costs for other activities that are necessary to carry out the project's R&D activities. Any purchases from subcontractors must be entered here. All costs entered as "other operating expenses" must be specified in the application.  
• Equipment, which includes operating and depreciation costs for scientific equipment necessary to carry out the project.  

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, this may be included in the application. 

You will find detailed and important information about what to enter in the project budget on the website.   

Scope of support 

Funding of up to NOK 5 million per project may be awarded under this call. There are no requirements for self-funding, but for the higher education sector, the Research Council requires some self-funding of researcher time. 

Conditions for funding 

The projects must start between 1 December 2025 and 31 March 2026 and the project must have significant activity (costs) in 2026. The latest permitted project completion is 1 August 2029. 

The reinforcement project must generally start and end within the project period of the ongoing project. You can go beyond the end date of the ongoing project, but then it must be clear that the reinforcement project builds on and reinforces results from the ongoing project 

Support for a research organisation goes to the organisation's non-economic activity. It therefore does not constitute state aid. The Research Council assumes that the necessary accounting separation is in place. Enterprises are not eligible to receive funding to cover project costs, and may not participate as a partner. 

In addition, you must be aware of the following if you should receive an award from us: 

• The Research Council's conditions for funding can also be found in our general terms and conditions for R&D projects on the information page What the contract involves.  
• The project manager and the Project Owner must have assessed and handled the consideration of research security in the project. Research security refers to risks associated with unwanted transfer of knowledge and technology, impact on research and innovation, or breaches of research ethics/integrity where knowledge and technology are used to undermine key societal values.  
• Grant recipients in research organisations and the public sector (Project Owners and partners) must have action plans for gender equality (GEPs) 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 application, where you will find more information about the requirements for data management plans in projects that receive funding from us.  
• For medical and health studies involving humans, the Research Council sets special requirements and guidelines for prospective registration of studies and publication of results.  

Please note that you can only submit the application once. If you submit the application and subsequently see that it still needs to be changed, you can create a new application – e.g. as a copy of the one you have already submitted – and in this way submit a new version as long as the call is open for applications. 

• The application and all attachments must be written in Norwegian and/or English. 
• All attachments must be in PDF format. 

Mandatory attachments 

• Project description of a maximum of 5 pages. Use the standard template that you can download at the bottom of the page. 
• If the application includes funding for a doctoral fellowship or postdoctoral fellowship, confirmation of security clearance and authorisation for the research fellow must be attached, or alternatively a confirmation including a description of how the process for advertising a research fellowship position and appointment is carried out so that the requirement for security clearance is met.
•  CV for new, key participants who do not participate in the ongoing project. Use the standard template that you can download at the bottom of the page. You will 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 
• Letters of intent from new partners. See sample letter of intent on our guidance page.

 Applications that do not meet the requirements above will be rejected. 

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 websites linked to 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. 

Applications will be assessed in light of the purpose of the call and the following criteria:

All applications will be assessed by the Research Council's administration and will be read by a minimum of two case officers. The applications are assessed against the four criteria: quality, impact and impact, implementation and relevance to the call. All grades are given on a scale from 1 to 7, where 7 is the best. 

All applications with a mark of 4 or lower on one or more of the criteria will be rejected. If there are more qualified applications than available funding, the following will be emphasised in the prioritisation of which applications are to be funded: 

1. In total, the funded projects will cover the three priority technology areas artificial intelligence, autonomy and quantum technology.  (One application is not expected to cover everyone.) 
2. In total, the funded projects must educate at least 2 candidates at doctoral and/or postdoctoral level who can be security cleared to a minimum of "Secret".
3.  Gender balance is emphasized. Applications with a woman project manager will be prioritised in the event of otherwise equal assessment. 

The Research Council will fund projects that have a place 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. 

The Research Council may reject applications where the Project Owner or partner has materially breached its obligations in other projects funded by the Research Council in the two years prior to the submission of the application. 

The application may be rejected if the project manager has been appointed to the Joint Integrity Committee or the Investigation Committee in the last two years prior to the submission of the application. 

We expect to publish which applications will be funded on 15 December 2025.