External Funding Opportunities

- Utrecht Network Young Researchers Grant - to promote and further enhance the Network’s support to students and staff as well as broaden mobility between the Network’s institutions.

Within the framework of the Young Researchers Grant up to 20 scholarships of €1,000 each will be offered to students, who might not be eligible for other scholarship programmes such as ERASMUS+ (e.g. length of stay is under 2 months). The host institution cannot be in the same country as the Institution you are enrolled in and the grant is limited to thesis research on masters or PhD level. Students are allowed to take courses as well but priority will be given to ‘research-only’ PhD students. Deadlines: UiB: application form must be sent to og sender til erasmus@uib.no latest 1. February 2021 / Utrecht Network: 5 February 2021.

- 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.

- Deadlines 2021: 

1) 10. February 2021

• Researcher Project for Scientific Renewal
• Researcher Project for Young Research Talents
• Three-year Researcher Project with International Mobility
• Large-scale Interdisciplinary Researcher Project

Note:

- You can be a project manager of only one of the first 3 grant applications listed above or Collaborative Project (17. February deadline).

- You can be a project manager for both a Researcher Project for Scientific Renewal and a Large-scale Interdisciplinary Researcher Project grant apllication.

2) 17. February 2021

• Collaborative Project to meet Societal and Industry-related Challenges

Note:

- You can be a project manager of only one Collaborative Project or the first 3 grant applications listed above (10. February deadline).

- You can be a project manager for both a Collaborative Project and a Large-scale Interdisciplinary Researcher Project grant apllication (10. February deadline).

- Research Center for Clinical Treatment (FKB)

FKB is a national initiative with the goal of establishing clinical research environments which, through outstanding research, contribute to improving the treatment of Norwegian patients.Research organizations with access to patients in binding collaboration with relevant actors can apply. We aim to be able to allocate two to three new centers. To be able to apply, you must submit a mandatory sketch.

Deadlines:

• Mandatory sketch deadline: 6 January 2021. See sketch announcement.
• Application deadline: 12 May 2021. See main announcement.

Webinar for this call will be on 27. November 2020 at 09.00-10.00. Requirements and guidelines for the announcement will be reviewed and there will be plenty of opportunities to ask questions. The event is streamed and recordings become available.

- 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.

- Research Commercialisation from Publicly Funded Research - to contribute to increasing commercial exploitation of publicly-funded research in Norway. A unique grant application may only be submitted once.

1. Qualification Project (former Milestone Project) 

   The purpose of a qualification project is to undertake initial investigations into the commercial potential of research results that aim to clarify which course to pursue as regards the direction of research, technology development or strategic decisions. The results from a completed Qualification Project will often form the basis for decisions on the subsequent course of commercialisation, and the results can be used to support an application for commercialisation funding in the form of a  Proof-of-Concept.

   The funding must be used to clarify the commercial potential of promising research results. The anticipated long-term economic gains are increased value creation, sustainability, competition and increased ability to address major societal challenges. NOK 200 000-500 000 for 3-12 months. Deadline: open-ended.

2. Proof-of-Concept Project

   The purpose of a Proof-of-Concept Project is to reduce the project’s uncertainty relating to technology and the market. The goal is that when the Proof-Of-Concept Project is concluded, the most critical questions and uncertainties have been clarified, so that the next stage of the commercialisation process can begin.

   The funding must be used to reduce technological risks and increase the commercial application of results from publicly funded research projects. The anticipated long-term economic gains are increased value creation, sustainability, competition and increased ability to address major societal challenges. NOK 1 000 000-5 000 000 for 12-36 months. Deadline: open-ended.

The Norwegian Cancer Society announces NOK 10 million for research on cancer prevention and encourages institutions within medicine and health sciences, epidemiology, public health, social sciences, health and social economics, psychology / behavioural research etc., to apply for funding for research that can contribute to prevent cancer, improve public health and reduce health inequalities. Applications with a clear cancer prevention relevance are welcome, and we particularly welcome proposals with a focus on on primary or secondary prevention.

What is funded

The proposal may include one or more of the following (see Application Guidelines/Terminology and definitions): 

• Researcher positions
• Postdoctoral researchers
• PhD candidates
• Technical positions
• Associated running costs

There is no requirement for a minimum number of positions. The call does not cover indirect costs.

1-4 years / NOK 1-5 million. See full call announcement for more details. Deadline: 10 March 2021.

The 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.

- TMS Starting Grant Programme 2021 - calls for proposals for grants beginning in 2022.

Candidates who have reached the age of 40 by the prequalification deadline are normally not eligible. Each TMS Starting Grant will be given as financial support for a research project, maximum NOK 10 millionper 4-year per grant. Call text. Deadline (step 1 / Prequalification): 8. March 2021.

[ Results from the prequalification round will be ready in the middle of June 2021. The deadline for proposals to the final round will be medio August and the interview day for the finalists will be announced later. Results from the final round will be announced on December 3rd 2021 ]

- Call for K.G. Jebsen Centres for Medical Research at Norwegian medical faculties and university hospitals.

The new centers will form part of the foundation’s programme for translational medicine. The programme currently comprises 20 research centers established in close cooperation with the medical faculties and university hospitals in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Tromsø. n 2018, an external evaluation was made of the investment in K.G. Jebsen centers in medicine. The evaluation report that is relevant to applicants can be downloaded here.

Read the full call document here. Maximum of 4.5 millions NOK/year for a 5-year period. Deadline: 6. May 2021, at 12:00 (noon).

- Financial support for applicants from the Research Council of Norway - You can apply for financial support to find partners, networks and relevant calls for proposals, as well as for help to prepare a grant proposal

Horizon2020 - several calls.

European Research Council (ERC) - Frontier research grants

ERC 2021 (tentative dates)*:

* Delays to 2021 calls

• Starting Grant: 9 March
• Consolidator Grant: 20 April
• Advanced Grant: 31 August

- EDCTP Funding in Horizon Europe: draft proposal for the Global Health Partnership EDCTP3 outlining the  third EDCTP programme - one of the partnerships in Horizon Europe. Opportunities for UiB researchers to respond to the programme will be available in late Sept/Oct via the Norwegian Health Cluster reference group. Key objectives of the programme are:

• Health interventions: Evaluate new or improved health interventions against poverty-related infectious diseases and their interaction with non-communicable diseases.
• Collaboration and capacity development: Increase EU-Africa collaboration to build capacity to conduct clinical trials and implementation research according to ethical principles and regulatory standard.
• European coordination: Improve coordination, alignment, and integration of European national research programmes.
• South-South collaboration: Enhance scientific collaboration and international cooperation across sub-Saharan Africa.
• Partnership building: Increase international cooperation with public and private partners.
• EU cooperation: Increase interaction with other EU initiatives, including those linked todevelopment assistance.

- EDCTP has published it's calls for 2020. Follow the links below for details:                                                 

• Ethics and regulatory capacities (CSA2020ERC)
• EDCTP Regional Networks (CSA2020NoE)
• Capacity development for disease outbreak and epidemic response in sub-Saharan Africa, in collaboration with Africa CDC (CSA2020E)
• Career Development Fellowships in poverty-related diseases and child and adolescent health (TMA2020CDF)
• Innovative approaches to enhance poverty-related diseases research (RIA2020I)
• Strategic actions to maximise the impact of research on reducing disease burden, in collaboration with development cooperation initiatives (RIA2020S)

Visit the Research Council web page on International funding.

- 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.

Civitan Norway's Research Fund for Alzheimer's disease announces partial funding of doctoral / postdoctoral projects for research on Alzheimer's disease. Projects focusing on the disease´s causes will be prioritized, but other projects can also come into consideration. Funding: up to NOK 500.000,- per year for 2-3 years for a postdoctoral fellow can be expected, but the applicant must provide a guarantee for remaining funding for a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship / full 3-year doctoral degree period. The project description should follow the template of Research Council of Norway template for researcher project applications with a maximum of 10 pages (including references - find it at the bottom of this page). The application can be written in either Norwegian or English. In addition, CVs for both the PhD candidate/postdoctoral fellow and supervisor/project manager must be provided. Application documents have to be sent to h-johnse@online.no. Deadline: 15. January 2021. For more info: contact Anne Brækhus tlf. 952 69 949 or visit www.civitan.no

- Research 2021 - support for health research aimed at target groups in Norway that contribute to promoting living conditions, physical and mental health, coping, quality of life or social participation; this includes work for increased participation and equality for the disabled, preventive health work, rehabilitation, habilitation, care work and public health work.

The application must be submitted in collaboration with a voluntary organization. One can apply for:

• Research relating to physical and mental health, coping and quality of life (with the exceptions described below)
• One of the following types of positions related to a Norwegian institution:
  • Doctoral Fellow (with an annual round sum of NOK 781,000, see appendix for more info)
  • Postdoctoral fellow for named researcher who has not previously held a postdoctoral position (with an annual round sum of NOK 922,000, see appendix for more info)
• Salary/funds for up to three full-time equivalents over a period of 4 years.

Deadlines: 15 February 2021 (phae 1 - "draft" application in Norwegian) / 10. June 2021 (phase 2 - full application)

- Health 2021 - to support time-limited health projects and measures aimed at target groups in Norway that promote living conditions, physical and mental health, coping, quality of life or social participation.

Anyone can apply for support for health projects, but the application must be sent from or in collaboration with a voluntary organization with health purposes and the right to apply to the Dam Foundation (called the applicant organization). NOK 30,000-1,400,000 can be applied for for projects with health purposes and with a maximum duration of 3 years.

"Projects with health purposes" include_

• work for increased participation and equality for the disabled,
• preventive health work,
• rehabilitation,
• habilitation,
• care work and public health work. 

Projects can, for example, address challenges related to services, offers and measures for the disabled, the chronically ill, the acutely ill, relatives and other close relatives, as well as information work.

Deadlines: 15 March 2021

- Peder Sather Grant Program 2021-22

The Peder Sather Center for Advanced Study supports projects carried out by researchers at UC Berkeley (California) in collaboration with researchers from eight Norwegian universities. The Center offers . Funds are made available for 2 academic years. 

Grants of between $10K and $25K to support activities such as:

• workshops,
• mini-conferences,
• virtual intellectual exchanges,
• undertaking of exploratory and pilot studies,
• activities such as PhD student exchanges,
• longer-term stays for Principal Investigators,
• collection and analysis of data,
• other core research activities.

Deadline: 8. April 2021.

- 132 million for flexible educational offers

Diku and Competence Norway are now announcing grants for flexible educations. The educational offers shall contribute to more people receiving training and skills replenishment regardless of work situation and place of residence.

• Diku announces up to NOK 92 million for the development and operation of flexible and relevant educational offers in higher education, and which can be provided off campus.
• Competence Norway announces up to NOK 40 million for the development and testing of flexible further education offers that provide the competence necessary to digitize companies and / or meet the challenges and opportunities that digitization provides.

Deadline: 22. March 2021, 12:00.

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).

1. 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 1-6 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.

2. Positioning funding (POS)

Note: Deadline for using Positioning funding granted in 2020 is December 10, 2020. 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: 1 December. 

3. ERASMUS+ Employee Mobility

All employees at UiB (including technical-administrative staff and research fellows) can apply for a scholarship for mobility to an institution, organization or university in Europe to receive training, new knowledge and new experiences through exchanges, in addition to increasing international cooperation between UiB and European institutions in EU countries, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey. Visit ERASMUS+ Employee Mobility web page for more details. Deadlines: 20. august og 20. januar. 

- 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.
•  

- 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.
• Travel grants. Deadline: 1 December.

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.

- 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 August and 20 January.

- Travelgrants for students and researchers in Arqus

• Reserach stays (individually - PDF
• Research stays (research groups)- PDF
• Pre/Post-doc mentoring -PDF

Questions can be directed to senior advisor Rosa Nogueira. Deadline: 31 October 2020.

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

For more information on external funding opportunities, visit the call page / Research and innovation´s page or contact the research advisors at Helse Bergen: forskning@helse-bergen.no

- Webinar on COVID-19 research - 17. December 2020,  09.30-11.30

Anyone who works with COVID-19-related research are invited to a series of seminars in the period 2020-20With this, we want to contribute to a professional community and sharing of best practice, inspire communication of research results both between the projects and to the public. The first seminar is on 17 December 2020.

As many as 48 projects received support after we announced three urgent announcements related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020. The Norwegian Cancer Society and the Trond Mohn Foundation are involved and support projects. The goal was to quickly contribute to the response to the COVID-19 outbreak and facilitate real-time research. Research is now underway across the country to understand, learn from and limit the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, by improving patient care, strengthening public health preparedness and studying the consequences for the economy and working life.

Follow the link above for the programme.

- International Consortium for Personalised Medicine (ICPerMed) will hold its second international conference on 25-26 February in Paris.

The event will bring together key opinion leaders from research infrastructures, industry, education, healthcare providers, funding organisations, and will also welcome representatives from ministries and the European Commission. Talks will focus on research towards the implementation of personalised medicine approaches into health care systems for the benefit of patients, citizens and the society as a whole and on the question of sustainability. The best practice examples in personalised medicine research will complement the programme to demonstrate ICPerMed achievements.

The programme and registration details are available on the event's page. You can follow the conference digitally.

Background: ICPerMed was initiated during several workshops organised by the European Commission in 2016. ICPerMed, with more than 40 funding bodies, aims to provide a flexible framework for cooperation between its member organisations for coordinating research as driver of personalised medicine. The first ICPerMed conference took place in 2018 in Germany. In the last years, ICPerMed developed a Vision Paper focusing on five challenges or perspectives in personalised medicine: citizen engagement, involvement of health providers, implementation within healthcare systems, health-related information, and economic value of implementation.-  

- NFR