! New national co-financing scheme for EU projects from 2025

The information on this page applies only to ongoing EU projects that began in 2024 or earlier. These projects will continue under the scheme that has already been approved for them.

From 2025, a new national co-financing scheme for EU projects has been introduced. At NTNU, this scheme is allocated and administered at the departmental level.

Are you planning to apply for a new EU project? Please contact your department for guidance.

NTNU has two incentive schemes to support participation in Horizon Europe and certain related activities:

• Additional funding for projects that are awarded support
• PhD or postdoctoral positions for NTNU-coordinated collaborative projects and ERC projects

Norsk versjon: Horisont Europa - insentivordninger

See also: Horizon Europe

Additional funding

Projects that receive grants under Horizon Europe and certain related activities are eligible for additional funding from NTNU. In practice, this is an advance on the performance-based funding NTNU receives from the Ministry of Education and Research (KD), which is allocated to the project.

The advance is recovered by deducting the corresponding amount from the host faculty's allocation in the year the performance-based funding is received. If more than one faculty is involved, the host faculty is responsible for coordinating any necessary redistribution of the deduction.

Which types of projects are covered by the scheme?

Projects under the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (Horizon Europe), as well as certain related activities.

Who receives the additional funding?

The funding is awarded to the project group and managed by the project manager. In projects involving multiple departments or faculties, it is recommended that the funding be distributed among the participating departments in proportion to the budgeted EU income. Alternative distribution arrangements may be agreed upon.

If an alternative distribution is chosen, it must be approved by the heads of the relevant departments. In cases where several faculties are involved, and the funding is not distributed proportionally to the budgeted EU income per faculty from the project, the distribution must be approved by the leadership of the respective faculties.

What can the additional funding be used for?

The funding must be used for academic activities related to the project. Project costs that are not accepted by the EU, or that exceed the project’s budget, should be covered by the incentive funding—unless the project manager has received explicit approval from the head of department to charge these costs to the department’s budget.

The additional funding cannot be used to provide extra salary or fees to the project manager or other permanent staff. However, it may be used to fund a postdoctoral researcher, PhD candidate, or other temporary staff member to work on tasks relevant to the EU project.

How much funding is provided?

• If NTNU is the coordinator in a collaborative project, the support from NTNU amounts to 25% of NTNU’s share of the budgeted EU funding.
• If NTNU is a partner in a collaborative project, the support amounts to 15% of NTNU’s share of the budgeted EU funding.
• If NTNU is the sole beneficiary (mono-partner), the support also amounts to 15% of NTNU’s share of the budgeted EU funding.

Calculation and budgeting of incentive funding

The budget must be recorded in NTNU’s systems, and a separate project for the incentive funding must be created within the grant (bevilgningsøkonomi) framework.

Please refer to the routine description/guidelines for financial officers here: Calculating and budgeting EU incentive funding (in Norwegian).

PhD or postdoctoral position for coordinated collaborative projects and ERC projects

In addition to the scheme described under Additional funding (above), the following types of projects are eligible for either a three-year PhD position or a two-year postdoctoral position:

• Collaborative projects under Horizon Europe coordinated by NTNU, with a total budgeted EU contribution to NTNU of at least €500,000 for the entire project period
• Recipients of ERC grants

These positions are allocated from the faculty’s pool of open PhD positions.

Contact

For general enquiries, please contact: kontakt@okavd.ntnu.no.

EU advisors – contact persons and EU support at the faculties and in the joint administration.