Mandatory Outline as Basis for Applications for a Centre for Sustainable Area and Nature Use

Approved Norwegian research organisations can submit outlines. See the list of approved research organisations.   

Requirements relating to the Project Owner 

• The Project Owner must be an approved research organisation. 
• The research organisation listed as the Project Owner in the application form must have approved the submission of the application. 
• The Project Owner submits the application on behalf of all partners. 

Requirements relating to the project manager 

• The project manager (centre director) must document experience from managing large, complex projects. 
• The project manager must preferably be employed by the Project Owner, or alternatively by one of the Norwegian research partners. 
• Availability and estimated time spent on the tasks of project manager, work package leaders and any other members of the centre management must be stated in the application. 

The project manager and other project management's academic competence and suitability to carry out the project will be assessed by a panel. 

Requirements relating to partners 

The research in the centre will be carried out in binding collaboration between relevant research organisations, actors in Norwegian trade and industry, the public sector and other societal actors. See a more detailed description of collaboration and roles in the document Requirements and guidelines - Centre for Sustainable Area and Nature Use (link to come). 

• The centre must have at least two partners that are approved Norwegian research organisations, and preferably more. 
• The centre must have at least one foreign research partner, and preferably more. 
• The centre must have at least three Norwegian partners that are not research organisations, these are referred to as user partners and may include the public sector, trade and industry and other societal actors. 
• The application must be strategically supported by all partners. 

All partners must actively contribute to the planning, follow-up and dissemination of results and to ensuring that new knowledge is put to use. 

The centre will have a board where the majority of the members and the chairman of the board represent the user partners. 

In addition to those mentioned above, the centre may have foreign user partners that are not research partners. These can however not receive funding from the research council and must not be listed as partners or be included in the budget tables in the application form, You must document how any foreign user partners will contribute to achieving the centre's goals in the project description. 

We encourage the centre to have a reference group or similar to ensure a broader group of users and stakeholders. 

A centre with a large number of user partners will place great demands on the organisation of the centre. In such cases, we encourage applicants to differentiate between actors who actively participate in research and actors who primarily participate as "listening posts", "problem owners" or similar. The first group may have the status of user partners and be included as partners in the consortium, while the latter group may have a looser connection to the centre, for example in the above-mentioned reference group, and not be part of the consortium itself. 

This call does not allow for the use of R&D providers. 

The call for proposals does not include any funding. 

The outline can only be submitted once. It is not possible to edit submitted outlines. Therefore, do not press the "submit" button until the outline is completely finished and ready to be submitted. When you submit the outline, you will immediately receive an automatic confirmation that the outline has been received. It is your responsibility to ensure that your submission has been verified. 

The outline must be created and submitted via My RCN Web. A separate template must be used. You can download this at the bottom of the call. 

The outline can be written in Norwegian or English (note that the main application must be written in English). 

The outline description and contact information are uploaded as one PDF file. The document should not exceed five pages, and it is not possible to upload more than this. 

All the outlines will be assessed administratively by the Research Council. 

You will receive a brief written feedback on the outline. The feedback will focus on whether the outline satisfies the formal requirements for a centre for sustainable land use and nature use, and whether it falls within the purpose and framework of the call. 

No applications will be excluded on the basis of the outline feedback. It is up to the applicant on an independent basis to assess whether or not you should prepare an application for the main call. Our feedback on the outline therefore does not imply any obligation to process applications by the main application deadline. This means that the applicant is responsible for fulfilling all formal requirements in a main application.  

An overview of the outline (title, abstract, Project Owner and contact persons) will be published to everyone who has submitted an outline within the submission deadline 11 June . 

Feedback on outlines will be available by August 2025.