Ten of the Research Council of Norway’s (RCN) new portfolio boards are in the process of developing portfolio plans for research and innovation calls. The portfolio boards are responsible for distributing around nine billion NOK annually, and the portfolio plans guide the academic, thematic, and strategic allocation of funds. These plans are governance documents that aim to contribute to predictability and clarity in funding guidelines. The portfolio plans should be short and overarching, and will be detailed in an investment plan that is updated annually. The new plans will be presented to the RCN board in February 2025.
To ensure that the plans are based on updated knowledge and take various perspectives into account, RCN is organizing digital input meetings. In these meetings, the goals, priorities, and measures in the draft portfolio plans are presented, and participants have the opportunity to provide input. The digital input meetings take place from October 2024 to January 2025 and are open (anyone can register). There is now one remaining input meeting for Welfare and education on December 17, and one for Democracy and global development on January 8.
In the portfolio board meeting for innovation in October, representatives from a wide range of stakeholders participated, including FFA (Joint Arena of the Research Institutes e.g. NORCE, SINTEF), UHR (Norwegian Association of Higher Education Institutions), and individual institutions, including UoB. It emerged that the current draft of the portfolio plan for innovation was considered a good starting point, while views on priorities differed. One point that clearly divided opinions was the extent to which allocations should contribute to competence generation and -transfer. Should it be “other” portfolios that contribute to the education of researchers, while in the innovation portfolio funds go directly to operations and investment in innovation projects without emphasizing the competence aspect? Some argued that “this is not the portfolio we should use to educate PhD candidates,” while others emphasized the importance of having at least one project partner as an R&D provider to promote transfer of knowledge.
As we know, RCN isin a restructuring process, but it can still play an important future role as a funding source for K2 research. It may be useful to participate in the remaining input meetings to get an impression of the direction the portfolio plans are moving in and to familiarize yourself with the new portfolio plans when they are available.
Finally, I would like to remind you of the deadlines for nominations for the L. Meltzer’s College Fund awards, which is December 1. Nominations can be made by all professors and department heads at the University of Bergen. You can nominate candidates for the Meltzer Award for Young Researchers, the Meltzer Award for Outstanding Research Dissemination, and the Meltzer Award for Outstanding Research (the latter will be awarded for the first time in 2025). More information here: https://meltzerfondet.w.uib.no/sjekkliste/