UKRI Announces Collaboration Agreement with Norway
Agreement will enable UK researchers to form partnerships with Norwegian counterparts for many UKRI opportunities.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Research Council of Norway (RCN) have signed a Money Follows Cooperation agreement to reduce barriers to cross-border collaboration.
The agreement will enable eligible UK principal investigators to submit collaborative applications with co-investigators employed by Norwegian institutions. It will allow Norway co-investigators to be included in UK-led applications and to receive funding from the participating UKRI Councils.
In addition to this, UK researchers are also able to take part in RCN funding opportunities as international co-investigators. UK researchers wishing to take part as international co-investigators in applications submitted to RCN should refer to RCN’s website for further information and contact details.
On the UK side, the agreement pertains to all participating UKRI research councils (AHRC, ESRC, EPSRC, MRC and NERC) in specific funding opportunities that do not expressly forbid international collaboration and do not provide alternative support for international co-investigators. General conditions and budget will differ depending on the funding opportunity to which an application is being submitted.
Collaborative research applications led by UK researchers, involving Norway co-investigators, may be submitted in any disciplinary or interdisciplinary area which falls within the remit of the participating research councils.
UKRI covers the following costs of Norway co-investigators involved in project applications led by UK principal investigators, according to its applicable regulations.
- Directly incurred costs.
- Research assistants based in Norway.
- Norway coinvestigators salary costs.
- Infrastructure and facilities.
UKRI will pay the award directly to the lead UK organisation under its standard terms and conditions. The UK organisation where the UK principal investigator is based will then be responsible for disbursing the funds to the Norway co-investigators.
Applicants may apply until the end of the MFC agreement between UKRI and RCN on 4 October 2024, unless otherwise extended. Successful projects including a Norway co-investigator that extend past the end of the MFC agreement will continue to be supported by UKRI.
Further details of the agreement are available on the UKRI website.
(This report was the subject of a ResearchConnect Newsflash.)