Deadline: 09-Oct-2025
The NordForsk has announced funding for one Nordic research school to strengthen collaboration among Nordic universities and enhance the quality of innovation and entrepreneurship research.
Focus: A competitive Nordic region and Cooperation and network. The Nordic Research School—Innovation and Entrepreneurship will support the establishment of a Nordic research school aimed at fostering collaboration among universities across the region and elevating the standard of research in innovation and entrepreneurship. The initiative is designed to promote synergy in research training, knowledge exchange, and academic development within this critical field.
Applicants are invited to apply for funding to establish a research school with a budget of minimum NOK 12.75 million and a duration of up to 3 years. This budget includes up to NOK 8.75 million from NordForsk and a minimum in-kind contribution of NOK 4.0 million. The intention is to provide funding for one research school under this call.
Funding may be used for costs that are necessary for the implementation of the project, such as salaries of researchers corresponding to the person’s activity level in the project, PhD and post-doctoral positions excluding salary during teaching or departmental duties, running costs including data collection, analysis, consumables, minor equipment, and premises, mobility and research stays, travel, dissemination, outreach, courses, seminars, and knowledge exchange activities including open access charges, stakeholder involvement, indirect costs and overheads. Project Owners and partners may engage subcontractors for specific tasks, but subcontractors are not considered consortium partners and may not be granted rights to project results. All costs must be explained, and indirect costs should be calculated based on institutional rules and models, with justification provided in the budget section. Salaries for applicants not affiliated with research institutions in Nordic countries cannot be claimed as project costs. Partner institutions outside the Nordic region must fund their own participation, although travel and accommodation costs may be covered.
To be eligible for funding, proposals must be submitted electronically through the NordForsk Call and Application Portal by the call deadline and all proposals must be written in English. The consortium must include research-performing organisations in at least four Nordic countries, defined as Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland Islands. The host institution (Project Owner) must be an established research-performing organisation such as a university, a university college, or a research institute based in one of the co-funding countries: Iceland, Norway, and Denmark. The Project Leader must be a qualified researcher with a PhD, employed by the host institution for the project duration, and may only lead one application under this call. Each partner institution must provide a signed Letter of Commitment from an authorised representative. Organizations based in the Russian Federation or Belarus are excluded from participation. Non-research organisations may also participate as partners and receive funding to deliver project activities, but NordForsk funding cannot support economic activity, which must be formally separated from non-economic activity.
All eligible proposals will be rated using a scale of 1 to 7 (1 = poor, 7 = outstanding) based on contribution to call goals, quality of the proposal, Nordic added value, quality of the scientific team, feasibility, and stakeholder involvement. The panel will provide a written statement with a final overall grade for each proposal, and normally proposals rated 4 or below will not be considered for funding. Assessment criteria include the extent to which the proposal is relevant to the aims of the call, soundness and credibility of methodology, potential to develop new knowledge, ethical considerations, integration of inclusive innovation, societal relevance and potential impact, feasibility of continuation, Nordic added value through collaboration and mobility, complementarity of participating institutions, benefits for Nordic societies, experience and expertise of the team, gender balance, work plan quality, management and risk handling, allocation of tasks, and appropriateness of plans for stakeholder involvement, knowledge exchange and communication.
The Project Leader must submit the application form and annexes electronically through the NordForsk Application Portal no later than 13.00 CEST (Oslo Time) on 9 October 2025. Mandatory documents include the NordForsk full proposal form as specified in the portal, a project plan of maximum ten pages including references, a communication and dissemination plan of maximum two pages, CVs with up to ten publications and ten other key outputs (maximum three pages for the Project Leader and one page for each key researcher), budget specifications using standard templates, and Letters of Commitment.
For more information, visit NordForsk.