Climate change adaptation in Norwegian agriculture

The purpose of this call is to promote research collaboration between Norwegian research groups and relevant societal and industry actors in order to develop new knowledge and build research expertise that is necessary to address important societal challenges.

Research and innovation will help Norwegian agriculture, including forestry and reindeer husbandry, to adapt to climate change and continue to be productive and sustainable both today and in the future. The projects must develop knowledge, methods and solutions that strengthen production in the primary stage, by managing climate risk, exploiting new opportunities and contributing to increased preparedness in agriculture.

The projects will develop knowledge and methods that strengthen climate change adaptation, water management, production methods and emergency preparedness, so that primary producers have greater room for manoeuvre to produce food (and bioproducts) in a sustainable and economically viable manner throughout the country.

The projects will build on and further develop existing knowledge, tools, regulations and policy instruments, while also providing a solid knowledge base for policy development. The projects will function as arenas for co-creation, where research communities, primary producers and other industry actors and authorities develop and test solutions in practical agricultural operations. The focus is on plant and forest production, but livestock production can be included as a natural part of the operation.

The goal is to develop, test and implement climate adaptation solutions in agriculture, whether these are nature-based, social, cultural, technological, governance related or regarding land management. The projects must not have technology development or plant breeding as their main objective, but technology and development of plant material may be included where this is relevant for the climate adaptation of primary production.

Relevant thematic areas for the projects:

You can apply for funding for projects within the following thematic areas:

• Risk and preparedness: The primary producers' ability to manage weather-related risk and arrangements for risk mitigation and distribution in the value chain.
• Extreme weather and water management: Prevention of flooding, landslides and stormwater, including the preparation of hydrological risk plans at farm level and adaptation of drainage systems, as well as the use of nature-based solutions, improving soil health and safeguarding biodiversity, also at the landscape level.
• Climate data and modelling: Linking climate projections with plant growth models for better planning and prioritisation in plant breeding.
• Adaptation of farming methods: New cultivation techniques, crops, fertilization, tillage and harvesting/grazing/management and felling in a wetter and more variable climate, as well as assessment of social and environmental impacts. Post-harvest issues are not covered.
• Plant breeding and plant health: Development of robust plant material and measures against increased incidence of diseases, pests and weeds, including monitoring and early warning.
• Cost-benefit analyses and effects of measures: Cost-benefit assessments and strategies for climate change adaptation, including recommendations for policy development.
• Facilitation and motivation: Identification of factors that promote and hinder the implementation of climate adaptation measures and the development of methods and tools.

The applications must have a broader focus than pure technology development or pure plant breeding. Technology projects are referred to the AgriFoodTech call, see link below.

The projects must

• concern at least two, but preferably more, of the above-mentioned thematic areas, and the choices must be justified;
• develop knowledge and solutions for climate change adaptation in Norwegian agriculture;
• have primary producers involved in developing, testing and deploying solutions;
• include both natural, social sciences and humanities perspectives;
• have a concrete and feasible plan for how the results are used in the industry and society.

The projects must combine natural science perspectives, including ecosystems and biodiversity, with humanities and social science perspectives. This involves assessments of cost-benefit, economic and social consequences, as well as the need for relevant policy formulation.

We encourage everyone to include recruitment positions and foreign partners when relevant.

Criteria for prioritising applications eligible for funding, in order:

• average grade
• grade on the criterion Impact

Portfolio assessment:

The ranking above can be deviated from to award one agricultural project, one forestry project and one reindeer husbandry project if the projects have an overall grade of 4 or higher. The ranking may also be deviated from to ensure dispersion in the geographical research location.

• Innovation in Norwegian food and agricultural technology (AgriFoodTech)

Climate change is creating significant challenges for Norwegian agriculture (agriculture, forestry and reindeer husbandry), including higher temperatures, increased precipitation, more extreme weather, drought, stormwater and a greater risk of insect pests and diseases. At the same time, it is a national goal to strengthen green production and increase food security. A changing climate can also provide new opportunities, such as a longer growing season and the introduction of new species.

The Project Owner must be an approved Norwegian research organisation. You can find an overview of approved research organisations here.

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

If the application is a collaboration between several organisations, the Project Owner must submit the application on behalf of all the partners.

The project manager's expertise and suitability to carry out the project will be assessed by peers. There are no formal requirements for the project manager's qualifications.

In this call, you are required to include at least three Norwegian collaborating partners (hereinafter referred to as user partners) who are not research organisations, and all collaborating partners must have costs in the project. The user partners must contribute with costs that in total correspond to at least 20.0% of the amount that you seek from us for the project (hereinafter referred to as the participation requirement). Participation may consist of personnel and indirect expenses (e.g. hourly effort) and/or other project costs that are necessary to carry out the project. The costs must be entered in the project budget and be retrievable in the user partners' accounts. Thus, equipment, data sets, unpaid work or the like that are made available for the project without it being accounted for do not count as costs in the project.

Collaborating partners may fully finance their own costs without applying for support from us. Such own financing counts towards the participation requirement.

In addition, the following requirements apply:

• You are to carry out the project in effective collaboration. Read more under Article 25: Important definitions.
• The user partners must be societal or industrial actors who contribute expertise and experience, and who ensure that the project and the objectives of the project address real challenges in society and/or the industrial sector.
• Universities, university colleges and institutes whose main task is to conduct research cannot have the role of social or industrial actor.
• Sole proprietorships can be collaborating partners.
• Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) and Norwegian-registered foreign companies (NUF) do not count toward our requirements relating to collaborating partners.
• The application must be strategically supported by all collaborating partners.
• The Project Owner and collaborating partners must be independent of each other. This means that one cannot have a controlling influence over the other. This applies both between the Project Owner and the collaborating partner, and between all the collaborating partners. Any subcontractors and the Project Owner or collaborating partners must also be independent of each other. By controlling influence, we mean majority ownership or other specific legal or factual circumstances that mean that one actor can control the other. Read more about such dependencies here.
• The project should have a steering group or reference group in which the collaborating partners are represented.
• The project cannot be commissioned research.
• You must describe how the expertise built up in the project can benefit larger user groups.

You cannot include R&D providers in the project

Foreign organisations similar to Norwegian research organisations are eligible for funding under this call. Other foreign organisations may participate in the project, but are not eligible to receive funding.

Read about collaborating with foreign organisations here.

The Project Owner or collaborating partners may engage subcontractors to deliver services and contribute to the implementation of certain tasks in the project. Subcontractors cannot be given rights to project results.

Organisations that are subject to the regulations for public procurement must carry out the selection of subcontractors in line with these regulations.

Read more about using subcontractors.

If doctoral and postdoctoral research fellows are included in the project and there are specific plans for them to stay abroad, this may be included in the application. We also have a separate call for proposals for research stays abroad for doctoral and post-doctoral research fellows. Here, the project manager can apply for funding for research stays abroad for research fellows who are part of the project during the project period.

If you have specific plans for visiting researchers or stays abroad for researchers in the project, this may be included in the application. The rules for such stays and information about rates can be found on the page about work packages and budgets under the section Other project expenses.

Funding of NOK 4–20 million per project is available under this call.

The following conditions apply to the allocation of funding:

• The funding to the research organisations goes to their non-economic activity in the form of independent research. It therefore does not constitute state aid. The Research Council assumes that the necessary accounting separation between the organisation's economic and non-economic activities is in place.
• The call for proposals has been notified as an aid scheme to the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) and has the reference GBER XX/2026/R&D&I. If an undertaking is to be reimbursed for part of its project costs as a collaborating partner in the project, this must be done in accordance with Article 25 of the General Block Exemption Regulation (Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014). See the Consolidated Block Exemption Regulation with amendments up to and including June 2023. In addition, the general conditions in Chapter I of the Regulation must be met. Terms and concepts shall be interpreted in accordance with the corresponding terms and concepts in the aid rules. In the event of any conflict between the announcement and the state aid rules, the latter shall take precedence. For the same reason, the call for proposals may also be adjusted.
• Aid may not be granted to undertakings that have not complied with the requirements for repayment following a previous decision by the ESA/EU Commission declaring the aid illegal and incompatible with the internal market. Nor may aid be granted to undertakings in difficulty within the meaning of EEA law.

The Research Council's conditions for granting and disbursing funding are set out in the General Terms and Conditions for R&D Projects (in Norwegian, English version will be available shortly).

The Research Council requires a high standard of research ethics in the projects we fund. You must provide a brief description of how ethical issues will be handled, to show the panel that you have an appropriate plan for this.

The responsibility for ensuring that the research ethics standard is followed lies with the individual researcher and research organisation (cf. the Research Ethics Act). The panel's assessment and the Research Council's decision regarding funding do not entail any approval of research ethics.

For more information, see the Research Council's page on ethical standards in research.

If your application is awarded funding, you must be aware of the following:

• The project manager and the Project Owner must have assessed and managed any issue of research security in the project. Research security refers to the risks related to undesirable transfer of knowledge and technology, malign influence on research and innovation or violations of research ethics or integrity, where knowledge and technology are used to undermine key societal values.
• Grant recipients in research organisations and the public sector (Project Owners and collaborating partners) must have action plans for gender equality (GEPs) available on their websites. The requirement does not apply to the private sector, interest groups or the voluntary sector.
• The Research Council requires full and immediate open access for scientific articles, see Plan S - open access to publications.
• For all projects that handle data, the Project Owner must prepare a data management plan. Here you will find more information about the requirements for data management plans in projects that receive funding from us.
• For medical and health studies involving humans, the Research Council sets special requirements and guidelines for prospective registration of studies and publication of results.

Applications that do not satisfy the formal requirements or do not meet the purpose of the call will be rejected. Applications that fall outside the delimitations set out in the call will be rejected without further consideration.

Applications that meet the formal requirements and fall within the scope of the call will be submitted to a panel of at least three panel members for assessment. The panel members make their individual assessments of the application and award a mark per criterion. After they have written the individual assessments, the panel meets for discussion, so that the application receives a joint panel assessment. In the meeting, the panel agrees on a joint panel assessment with grades and written assessments for each of the criteria.

The scale of marks goes from 0 to 5, where 5 is the highest. You can find more information on our information page about Scale of marks and assessment criteria.

Thresholds for marks

• We consider applications with an average mark ≥3.0, and no single mark ≤2, to be eligible for funding and will process these further.
• All other applications will be rejected.

Assessment of whether the application satisfies the academic, thematic and/or structural guidelines set out in the call

The administration will assess the extent to which the application meets the requirements and the thematic, academic and/or structural guidelines described in the call.

Portfolio assessment and decisions by the portfolio board

The administration makes a recommendation to the portfolio board. Applications can be recommended for allocation or rejection.

The portfolio board makes the decision on allocation or rejection. The decision is based on a portfolio assessment with the aim of identifying the applications that best meet the objectives, guidelines and priorities of the call as a whole.

Feedback on the application

You will receive feedback in the form of a decision letter. This includes written assessments and grades for each assessment criterion and a written justification for the decision.

The Portfolio Board is scheduled to decide which projects will receive funding the 16th of December 2026.