Support for membership of the European Open Science Cloud Association

The call is open to approved Norwegian research organisations and publicly funded administrators of research infrastructure that cooperate closely with Norwegian research organisations. See here for the list of approved Norwegian research organisations.

Requirements relating to the Project Owner

The research organisation/public entity listed as the Project Owner in the application form must have approved submission of the grant application.

Requirements relating to the project manager

There are no formal requirements for the project manager's qualifications.
The Project Manager must be employed by the Project Owner.

You can apply for funding to cover the membership fee, in arrears, that your research organisation has paid to the EOSC AISBL.

You enter the amount you are applying for coverage under the cost type "Other operating expenses".

Scope of funding

The Research Council may provide funding of up to NOK 130 000 per year under this call, and the allocation is valid for one year at a time. Funding from the Research Council may cover up to 100 per cent of the EOSC AISBL membership fee, provided that this is not covered in any other way. The aid cannot contribute to the profitability of the enterprise. In the event of exchange rate changes, the aid amount in Norwegian kroner will be adjusted to correspond to the membership fee paid in euros.

Projects must start between 1 January 2023 and 1 November 2027 and must apply for funding from the Research Council each year. The latest permitted project completion date is 31.12.2027.

Support awarded to a research organisation goes to the organisation's non-economic activity. Thus, it does not constitute state aid. The Research Council requires that the necessary accounting separation is in place.

Companies will not be eligible to receive support to cover project costs.

The Research Council's requirements relating to allocation and disbursement of support are set out in our General Terms and Conditions for R&D Projects, which can be found in their entirety on the information page What the contract involves.

From 2022, all grant recipients that are research organisations and public sector bodies (Project Owners and partners) must have a Gender Equality Plan (GEP) available on their website. The requirement does not apply to private businesses, special interest organisations or the voluntary sector.

Funding will be disbursed in arrears on the basis of the invoice from EOSC AISBL. Note that in addition to attaching a copy of the invoice to the grant application and a copy of payment details for transfer abroad, you must send us an EHF invoice to get the membership fee refunded after you have received notification that your application has been approved. We expect no further reporting.

When submitting a grant application for this call, you must be aware that it is not possible to make any changes to the grant application once it has been submitted. Therefore, make sure to complete the application before you submit it to us.

Application requirements

• The applicant/Project Owner is in the correct category.
• The grant application falls within the topic/objective specified in the call.
• The application must be written in Norwegian or English.
• Attachments must be in PDF format.

Mandatory attachment

• copy of invoice for membership fee from EOSC AISBL as proof of membership
• copy of payment details for transfer abroad

Applications that do not satisfy the above requirements will be rejected.

All attachments to the application must be submitted with the application. We will not accept attachments submitted after the application deadline unless we have requested additional documentation.

We will not consider documents and websites linked to in the application, or other attachments than those specified above. Be careful to upload the correct attachment type, as there are no technical restrictions on what kind of templates it is possible to upload in the application form.

Grant applications will be assessed administratively by the Research Council. The fact that you fulfil the application requirements and have submitted a mandatory attachment in the call will form the basis for the decision as to whether or not you will receive funding.

1 October: "Guarantee deadline" to guarantee application processing and disbursement of funds in the current year. After the deadline, you can still submit an application, but then the applications will be processed chronologically and continuously, depending on capacity.