Deadline: 27 May 2020
The Research Council of Norway has announced a emergency call for proposals for “Economic and Labour-Market Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Norwegian Business and Working Life.”
The purpose of this call for proposals is to fund research on the economic ramifications for Norwegian business and working life of the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s measures to limit the spread of infection with the ensuing economic consequences.
Research activities may focus on the pandemic and the measures implemented separately or within a unified context. Projects may also revolve around the measures/changes to rules introduced by the authorities within labour-market and welfare policy and the resulting impacts.
There is already evidence of a significant impact on the activity level in various industries and cooperation along supply chains, as well as of changes in travel patterns and consumer behaviour. The Government has implemented measures that limit or suspend normal activity and has introduced compensation schemes on an unprecedented scale. The projects to be funded under this call will provide a means of collating real-time experience from this type of disruptive change in market and framework conditions, and of generating insight into and learning about the impacts that may prove useful to society further down the line
What types of Projects are Sought?
- Funding is available for projects that focus on economics, and inter- or multidisciplinarity is encouraged. Projects are encouraged to analyse alternative political responses and measures and their effective mechanisms and consequences.
- Potential focus areas include:
- Collection and sharing of real-time data, e.g. between regions and in cooperation with other countries, for analysis and safeguarding of information for future efforts;
- Descriptions and analysis of the situation and developments relating to:
- industries and value chains;
- regions and individual locations; clusters/networks/ individual companies;
- the labour market; employees, furloughed employees and the unemployed;
- climate change challenges;
- patterns of demand and customer behaviour within industries.
- Documentation and analysis of:
- domino effects: impacts of insufficient supply on the next segment in the chain;
- strategies for companies under pressure (restructuring, closure, temporary lay-offs, adaptations, etc.);
- consequences of changes in compensation for loss of income for employees/the unemployed, distributional and efficiency effects, mobility in labour markets;
- strategies for new business opportunities (both short- and long-term);
- changes in how companies perceive and carry out their corporate social responsibility;
- mechanisms for burden-sharing and effects of compensatory measures.
Thematic Areas
- Industry and services
- Welfare, culture and society
Funding Information
- The minimum amount of funding that may be sought is NOK 2 million.
- Projects are to be of relatively short duration, and must be completed by autumn 2022.
Conditions for Funding
- When Research Council support is awarded to research organisations, the funding is only to go to the non-economic activity of the research organisations in the form of independent research. The Research Council requires a clear separation of accounts for the organisation’s economic and non-economic activities.
- The project is to be implemented by means of effective collaboration as defined in the state aid rules.
- Effective collaboration is defined as follows: “Collaboration between at least two independent parties to exchange knowledge or technology, or to achieve a common objective based on the division of labour where the parties jointly define the scope of the collaborative project, contribute to its implementation and share its risks, as well as its results. One or several parties may bear the full costs of the project and thus relieve other parties of its financial risks. Contract research and provision of research services are not considered forms of collaboration.”
- If the project is awarded funding, the Project Owner is to draw up collaboration agreements with all of the Norwegian and international partners in the project. The collaboration agreements regulate the reciprocal rights and obligations of the partners and safeguard the integrity and autonomy of the research.
Eligibility Criteria
- The call is open to approved Norwegian research organisations in binding cooperation with relevant actors from Norwegian trade, professional or employee organisations, and public agencies or entities.
- Requirements relating to the Project Owner
- The organisation listed as the Project Owner in the grant application must have approved the submission of the grant application to the Research Council. The grant application must describe how the project incorporates the strategic objectives and priorities of the Project Owner.
- Requirements relating to the project manager
- To qualify as project manager, you must have an approved doctorate or equivalent qualifications before the date of the application submission deadline. If you do not have an approved doctorate but are qualified at associate professorship level or have current or previous employment in a position as forsker (research professor), forsker 2 (senior researcher) or seniorforsker (senior researcher), you are also qualified.
- Requirements relating to partners
- Projects are to be carried out by one or more research organisations in binding cooperation with relevant actors from Norwegian trade, professional or employee organisations, and public agencies or entities.
- Projects must involve at least two partners that are not research organisations. At least one of these should be either a Norwegian trade or professional organisation or a Norwegian employee organisation.
- Public agencies may be partners and receive funding to cover their project costs.
- Companies and undertakings may be partners in the project but are not eligible to receive Research Council support.
- The grant application must describe how the project incorporates the strategic objectives and priorities of all the partners.
- The project is to be implemented by means of effective collaboration as defined in the state aid rules, which means that all project partners are required to take active part in planning and following up the project as well as in disseminating project results and promoting the utilisation of new knowledge. Projects are to have a steering committee or reference group comprising representatives from the project partners.
- Collaboration with research organisations outside Norway may also be included.
- The project proposal must describe how the knowledge developed under the project will be of benefit to wider user groups.
- A project participant may not be assigned two different roles in the project. This means that a sub-contractor for the project may not have the role of Project Owner or partner in the same project.
For more information, visit https://www.forskningsradet.no/en/call-for-proposals/2020/economic-and-labour-market-consequences-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-for-norwegian-business-and-working-life/