External Funding Opportunities

- Research Stay Abroad - each funding source offers funding for research stays abroad for the candidates:

• The Faculty of Medicine - Postdoctoral fellows with UiB funding - granted for stays 3-12 months. Deadlines: 1 March and 1 October.
• Helse Vest - granted for 6 or 12 months. Postdoctoral fellowship applicants are especially encouraged to apply for an overseas fellowship over the course of their fellowship period. Deadline: continuing.
• Research Council of Norway - granted for 3-12 months. Deadline: continuing.

- EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization) Fellowships - Research on the molecular mechanisms of life at all levels.

• Short-term Fellowships fund research exchanges of up to three months between laboratories in eligible countries.
• Long-term Fellowships are awarded for a period of up to two years and support post-doctoral research visits to laboratories throughout Europe and the world. Deadline: throughout the year.

- PES2020 - Support to Norwegian Stakeholders Shaping the Content of Horizon Europe

This call is designed to facilitate cohesive Norwegian collaboration and increase the participation of Norwegian stakeholders in the effort to promote Norwegian interests in the process of shaping the content of Horizon Europe, the EU’s next research and innovation framework programme (2021–2027). NOK 100,000-500,000 for 12-24 months. Deadline: continuing.

What can you seek funding for?

• Payroll and indirect expenses: costs incurred by the Project Owner and other task-performing partners, budgeted in accordance with the Research Council’s standard guidelines.
• Direct costs related to:
  • travel and accommodation/board in connection with relevant meetings;
  • costs in connection with organising workshops, seminars, etc.
• Project activities/incurred costs from the application date onward may be included.

Horizon2020 - several calls.

Selected H2020 deadlines 2019-2020:

1. European Research Council (ERC) - Frontier research grants

- ERC Synergy Grant - for a group of two to maximum four Principal Investigators (PIs) working together and bringing different skills and resources to tackle ambitious research problems. No specific eligibility criteria regarding the academic training are foreseen for ERC Synergy Grants. PIs must present an early achievement track-record or a 10-year track-record, whichever is most appropriate. Proposals will be evaluated on the sole criterion of scientific excellence which, in the case the ERC Synergy Grants, takes on the additional meaning of outstanding intrinsic synergetic effect. Up to €10 Million for 6 years. Deadline: 5 November 2019.

- ERC Consolidator Grant - for researchers of any nationality with 7-12 years of experience since completion of PhD (Extensions are possible under certain circumstances — see the latest ERC Work Programme), a scientific track record showing great promise and an excellent research proposal who have established a research team and want to strengthen the team and their career in Europe. Up to €2 Million for 5 years. Open call. Deadline: 4 February 2020.

2. Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA) - Along with individual fellowships, the MSCA help develop training networks, promote staff exchanges and fund mobility programmes between countries, optionally to the non-academic sector.    

- Innovative Training Networks (ITN) - MSCA-ITN-2020 - supports competitively selected joint research training and/or doctoral programmes, implemented by partnerships of universities, research institutions, research infrastructures, businesses, SMEs, and other socio-economic actors from different countries across Europe and beyond. Deadline: 14 January 2020, 17:00.

3. Societal Challenges (SC) - Collaborative breakthrough research and radical innovation

NEW: The last update of the Work Programme now contains all the topics that have final deadline in 2020.  It will be published by end of June 2019. For more information and updates please visit the Commission website. To simplify the overview, here you can find a list of the relevant topics only with 2020 deadlines. Deadline: 4 topics are two stage with first stage deadline already 24 September and 3 topics with final deadline in November 2019.

Please contact MEDforsk@uib.no if you have any questions or would like to discuss relevant options within your field of research with faculty advisors.

4. Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) - Public-private partnership aiming to speed up the development of better and safer medicines for patients

Pre-announcement - Next year's proposed IMI (20) topics have been published: 

• Early diagnosis, prediction of radiographic outcomes and development of rational, personalised treatment strategies to improve long-term outcomes in Psoriatic Arthritis
• Innovations to accelerate vaccine development and manufacture
• Real-world clinical implementation of liquid biopsy
• Tumour plasticity
• Proton versus photon therapy for oesophageal cancer – a trimodality strategy
• Handling of protein drug products and stability concerns
• Academia and industry united innovation and treatment for tuberculosis (UNITE4TB)

- NEW: Call for proposals for interdisciplinary research projects - the aim of the Nordic Programme for Interdisciplinary Research is to promote high-quality bottom-up research that combines and integrate skills from multiple disciplines. The programme aims to strengthen the ability of Nordic research environments to meet the increasing international demand for truly interdisciplinary research that spurs new scientific approaches in pursuit of answers to novel research questions. The proposal must address at least two of the three areas of science as used by the European Research Council: Life science; Physical Sciences & Engineering; Social Sciences and Humanities. The research project must include partners from research-performing organisations in at least three Nordic countries. Nordic countries are defined here as Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland Islands. Maximum funding/project is NOK 15 Million. Deadline for pre-proposal: 13 November 2019 at 13.00 CET.

- Excellence Emerging Investigator Grant within Endocrinology and Metabolism – for early career principal investigators (senior postdocs, assistant professors,etc.) to develop their career and establish their own teams. PhD within the past 4-8 years

- Ascending Investigator Grant within Endocrinology and Metabolism – for principal investigators at associate professor or senior research level to consolidate their research groups and reach their full potential as research leader. PhD within the past 8-18 years

- Distinguished Investigator Grant within Endocrinology and Metabolism – outstanding professors who have demonstrated the ability to execute and lead research at the highest international level through several years

For all:

• Max. 10 mill DKK, up to 5 years
• Deadline: 15 January 2020.

- Updated info on open calls! The EDCTP calls for proposals are supported through three distinct types of Horizon 2020 'actions':

• Research & Innovation Actions (RIA) are multicentre clinical trials conducted by research consortia involving both European and African research teams, with integrated capacity development and networking elements.
• Coordination & Support Actions (CSA) support activities that strengthen the enabling environment for conducting clinical trials and clinical research, including ethical review and regulatory capacity.
• Training & Mobility Actions (TMA) are fellowships that focus on the career development of individual researchers or research team members.

In 2019, EDCTP intends to launch 10 calls for proposals to support clinical research and related activities on poverty-related diseases. Details of the open and planned call texts are published on the website.

Planned calls:

• Ethics and regulatory capacities (CSA) - Deadline: 21 November 2019
• Career development fellowships (TMA) - Deadline: 27 November 2019
• EDCTP-AREF Preparatory fellowships (TMA) - Deadline: 27 November 2019
• Senior fellowships Plus (TMA) - Deadline: 1 February 2020
• Clinical research & product development fellowships (TMA) - Deadline: 28 February 2020
• Vaccines against Lassa virus - joint call with CEPI (RIA) - Deadline: 7 April 2020

- Romania-Norway - Collaborative Research Projects (CRPs) - Provide funding through CRPs that aim to enhance research-based knowledge development in Romania. The call will target basic and applied research in the following thematic areas:

• Energy
• Environment
• Health
• Social Sciences and humanities, including gender studies and social inclusion studies
• ICT
• Biotechnology

EUR 500.000-1.200.000 (tbc) for up to 3 years (with the possibility of 6-9 months extention, but not exceeding 30th of April 2024). Deadline (tentative): mid of December 2019.

- Romania-Norway - Mobility Call 2019 - Support for finding partners and preparing a proposal in the Romania Research Call 2019 will be available through a dedicated call (lump sums for travel). EUR 1.200 for a researcher wo travels from Romania <-> Norway.  Deadline: until the depletion of the available budget but no later than 20 November 2019.

- Pre-announcement: Calls for NOK 2 billion through the EEA funds - Interested in research collaboration with Poland, Romania, the Baltic States, the Czech Republic or Portugal? Estimates indicate that about 200 research projects with Norwegian partners may be supported. A typical research project with EEA funding has a duration of around 3 years, a budget of about NOK 10 million and is managed by a research institution in the recipient country. It must also have at least one Norwegian partner. More nformation on the calls and priorities in the various programs can be found on the Research Council's website on EEA funding.

- Trond Mohn Foundation: gives grants towards research and research supporting activities at the University of Bergen (UiB) and Haukeland University Hospital (HUS) , and other Norwegian research institutions who cooperate with institutions in Bergen. The foundation also gives grants to support translational research at UiB and HUS.

Announcement of results from the Starting Grant Programme will be on 6 December 2019.

The Local Contact Points (LCP) for Research Project Support at UiB webpage provides an overview of the research advisors at the central administration responsible for the different funding programs/schemes. Feel free to contact them or your faculty advisors (MEDforsk@uib.no).

SPIRE

The Strategic Program for Research Cooperation (SPIRE) aims to support the University of Bergen's strategy and action plan for internationalization 2016-2022.

Who can apply: Scientific staff in first positions (must be employed at a minimum of 50% at UiB), researchers and postdoctoral fellows (must have 100% employment) at UiB.

SPIRE funds can be applied for from the following 2 categories:

1. International research collaboration - seed funding for the initiation and development of new, long-term international research collaborations as the basis for project applications.Note that the funds are limited to seed funding towards the Research Council and other external sources of funding (ex. Nordforsk), but not to Horizon 2020 / Horizon Europe.

2. Visiting research funds - to cover expenses (travel, accommodation, boarding, transport) by inviting a foreign guest researcher for a stay of 1, 2 or 3 months. There are no restrictions on land and partners but visiting researchers must at least be at the post-doctoral level. A maximum of NOK 15,000 can be awarded in support per month per application. In addition, support can be applied for to cover the guest researcher's travel expenses. Note that SPIRE funds cannot be paid directly as a salary / scholarship to the guest researcher.

• Use the standard standard SPIRE application template to apply for funds.
• 2020 SPIRE funds can be used during the period: 01.01.2020 - 31.12.2020.

Deadline: 1 December 2019 for SPIRE funds in 2020.

Positioning funding (POS)

Note: Deadline for using Positioning funding granted in 2019 is December 10, 2019. Unused POS-funds cannot be used the following year.

Positioning funding is divided into 3 categories:

1. Positioning funding for researchers - who are positioning themselves towards a Horizon Europe application:

• Building relationships with leading European environments (networking) whose purpose is to identify potential partners for future H2020/HEurope projects.
• Participation in arenas that contribute towards influencing the European research and innovation agenda (strategic work).
• Short-term positioning to build new partnerships/join existing consortiums.

2. Grants to fund strategic academic measures - at Faculty level:

• Participation in European strategy networks and forums.
• Interdisciplinary events in Bergen, with participation from the EU Commission or other relevant EU organizations.
• Study trips and delegation trips to Brussels.

3. Competence development funding for researchers and the EU administrative support staff - at the Faculties.

This includes participation at H2020/HEurope seminars, workshops and conferences both nationally and internationally. The course program for the competence activity for which funding is sought must be submitted with the application.

Deadline for POS funding in 2020grants for 2020: 1 December 1 2019. 

Please visit our web page dedicated to Innovation relevant funding possibilities.

- EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization) Fellowships - Research on the molecular mechanisms of life at all levels.

• Short-term Fellowships fund research exchanges of up to 3 months between laboratories in eligible countries.
• Long-term Fellowships are awarded for a period of up to 2 years and support post-doctoral research visits to laboratories throughout Europe and the world. Deadline: throughout the year.

- Career development fellowships (TMA) / EDCTP - Deadline: 27 November 2019.

- Preparatory Fellowships – in collaboration with the Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF) 2019 / EDCTP - Deadline: 27 November 2019 at 17:00.

- Meltzer Foundation Research Funds - to promote the academic activities of the University of Bergen (and others) and to support especially gifted students.

• Project Grants for students and PhD. Deadline: 1 December 2019.
• Travel grants. Deadline: 1 December 2019.

All applications to the Meltzer Research Fund must be sent via UiB`s electronic application system: https://fond.app.uib.no/.

- UiB - PhD-candidates and Post-docs funded by the Faculty of Medicine, University of Bergen, can apply for travel grants limited to 25.000 nok.There are now new guidelines for these stipends. Please read them in this PDF. Deadline: 1 March and 1 October 2019.

- Research Council of Norway - offers for a scholarship for research stays abroad applies to PhD candidates and Post Doctors in projects with full or partial funding for the Research Council for a minimum of 24 months. The research stays abroad may last for a minimum of 3 months and a maximum of 12 months. Deadline: continuing.

- Helse Vest - granted for 6 or 12 months. Postdoctoral fellowship applicants are especially encouraged to apply for an overseas fellowship over the course of their fellowship period. Deadline: continuing.

- ERASMUS+ staff mobility - subsidising mobility of up to 2 months, for UiB staff including PhD-candidates and post docs, to attend courses or individual laboratory visits. Also have a look at the list of organized staff mobility weeks. Deadline: 20 January 2020.