Research funds are to be an incentive as well as an economic contribution to produce more high quality research, and to build research expertise through awarding PhD and postdoctoral fellowships. The Regional Liaison Committee (Det regionale samarbeidsorganet) between Western Norway Regional Health Authority, University of Bergen, University of Stavanger and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, which decides the distribution of research funds, encourages regional cooperation in the research projects.
Aims and criteria describe who can apply for research funds from Helse Vest. For more information about who can apply, including access to this year’s Agreement of support form, please see the information under Who can apply for research funding.
The application form
Norwegian or English language can be chosen in the application form. The call and current guidelines are also available in English.
Link to application form
For applicants who have not used eSøknad before, please refer to the presentation of eSøknad.
Application categories and guidelines
Guidelines for all application categories have been prepared in addition to the general guidelines for Helse Vest's research funds. Applicants need to review the requirements and the advice that these guidelines provide. Each of the active application categories in this call can be found on the call for applications page.
Please make a note of the following:
- The length of «postdoctoral fellowships» depends on the completion of a research stay abroad. One can apply for 2½ years, 100% (5 years, 50%). This can be extended by 6 or 12 months if one completes a research stay abroad of the same length. This scheme concerns postdoctoral fellowships awarded from 2017.
- The maximum application amount for the application category «Open project support» (open prosjektstøtte) is NOK 1,5 million per year.
- There will be a possibility of awarding one «career fellowship». The age limit to apply for a «career fellowship» is 45 years.
- The application category «clinical researcher fellowship» (klinisk forskarstipend) is new and the Liason committee intends to award four to six such fellowships. Applicants must hold a degree as a health professional and be employed by a health trust or private, non-profit institution that has an agreement with Helse Vest. The age limit to apply for a «clinical researcher fellowship» is 50 years.
- Application for extra operating funds for PhD and postdoctoral fellowships are to be presented in the fellow application with a declaration attached from the supervisor/project manager.
- It is no longer possible to apply for «short term fellowships to finish a PhD degree»
Quality and benefit to patients and impact on patient care
Applications to Helse Vest are evaluated for scientific quality and the project's benefit to patients and impact on patient care. These two criteria are equal, in that meaning that neither high benefit/impact nor high quality alone is sufficient to receive funding. The four regional healthcare providers have developed common criteria for quality and benefit to patients and impact on patient care. Read more about the evaluation criteria in Aims and criteria.
User involvement in research
The board of Helse Vest RHF adopted in April 2015 guidelines for user involvement. User involvement in research is to provide added value to research, by involving the users in one or several parts of the project. All applicants are to explain any user involvement in the project or why this is not applicable. Find out more about this in the template for project description.
Required attachments
Two attachments are to be uploaded with the online application: 1) Project description and 2) Other attachments (which attachments are required depend on the application category; please see the guidelines in the form).
- A template for the project description has been prepared, and is to be used for all 2018 applications. Please note that all the main headings in the template are compulsory, while some of the subheadings give guidance and are not always relevant for all projects/application types.
- CV and list of publications are part of “Other attachments”. Please note that the CV should preferably not exceed two pages, see also suggested CV template
Please also note that...
- For PhD fellowship applications: At least one of the supervisors must be employed by a university or college in the region
- Personnel financed by the funds must be employed by the applicant institution
- Research funds are awarded to and must be managed by a health trust or private, non-profit institutions in the region (i.e. the applicant institutions)
- The funds may only be used by the project the funding was applied for
- The funds must be used in accordance with the award, the general principles and the applicant institution's guidelines
- Overhead cannot be covered from the funds
- Helse Vest encourages publication of results in open access journals. Please note that Helse Vest operating funds may be used to cover costs related to publication in such journals.
Award decisions
Granting of the research funds will be decided at the Liaison Committee's (Samarbeidsorganet) meeting on Friday, the 24th of November 2017. The results will be announced on the Liaison Committee's website as soon as possible after the meeting.
Please contact the Regional Centre for Clinical Research if you have any questions.
Note: In case of discrepancies between the Norwegian and English version of announcement and guidelines, the Norwegian version is the legally binding version.