To be eligible for funding, the following conditions must be met:

• Proposals must be submitted electronically through NordForsk Call and Application Portal by the call deadline.
• Proposals must be written in English.
• Project partners can be research performing organisations*, industry partners, public sector authorities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or other non-academic partners.  The rules for Estonian and Lithuanian partners, are outlined in annex 1.
• The consortium must include:
  • partners in at least three Nordic countries or in at least two Nordic countries, and one partner in Lithuania and/or Estonia. Nordic countries are defined here as Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland Islands.
  • at least two research performing organisations.
  • at least one non-academic partner.
• The host organisation (project owner) for the research project must be an established research performing organisation*, such as university, university college or a research institute based in one of the countries co-funding the call: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Estonia or Lithuania.
• If the project owner is based in Estonia or Lithuania, the project must appoint a Nordic co-host organisation among the list of eligible partners, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland Islands.
• The project leader (principal investigator) must have a PhD and be employed by the host organisation (project owner) during the duration of the project.
• A project leader can lead only one application but may participate as team member in other applications. The rules for Estonian and Lithuanian project leaders, are outlined in the annex 1.
• The proposal must include a signed Letter of Commitment from the project owner. Letters of Commitment must be signed by a person authorised to take on financial commitments on behalf of the host organisation for the entire duration of the project.
• Organisations based in the Russian Federation and Belarus may not participate in projects funded by this call.
• Applicants and project participants from Estonia and Lithuania must comply with national rules (see annex 1).

Applications that do not fulfil the above eligibility criteria will not be processed.

*A research-performing organisation is a legal entity which is a university, university college, or research institute and is characterised by the following criteria:

• Having as its primary goal to independently conduct fundamental research and/or applied research and/or research-based innovation where results are published.
• The organisation may be private or public but must not pay dividends from its activities. Research organisations pursuing both non-economic and economic activities must have a formal separation in place between its economic and non-economic activities.
• The organisation must have a significant production of academic, peer-reviewed, and published research.

Projects are expected to include appropriate stakeholders and end users in the co-development and co-leadership of the project. Engagement with other sectors, as appropriate, are expected to identify implementation barriers as well as help develop strategies and systemic approaches to overcome them. A trans-sectoral approach – involving the academic, research, economic (businesses), societal (governmental and non-governmental organizations)  and/or community sectors – strengthens the relevance of outcomes and enhances the conditions for their uptake and use, thereby increasing the likelihood of long-term societal and industrial impact.

There are two ways for stakeholders to be involved in the project.

First option, stakeholder organisations may participate as partner organisations. Stakeholder partner organisations have essential tasks for implementing the proposed research and shall sign the collaboration agreement defining the rights and obligations of all partners in the project. As consortium partners, they have access to project results, and their eligible costs are covered by the grant.

Second option, stakeholders participate without being consortium partners. The stakeholder as an individual/or organisation does not sign the collaboration agreement.  The costs can be reimbursed, from the grant, typically from the project owners budget for stakeholder involvement. They have no rights or duties connected to the implementation of the project. They may still provide access to data, participate in workshops, be active in a stakeholder board, support dissemination activities etc.

If the Nordic partner is an undertaking (a business), the maximum support from NordForsk is 150.000 EUR (1.6 mill. NOK) irrespectively of the sector mentioned below. The rules for Estonian and Lithuanian project partners, are outlined annex 1.

The support for an undertaking is provided as de minimis aid. There are limitations on the amounts an undertaking may receive under this obligation. For undertakings in the primary fishery and aquaculture sector (1) or the primary agricultural sector (2), the total amount of de minimis aid shall not exceed EUR 30,000 or EUR 50,000 respectively over the two preceding financial years and the current financial year as specified in the de minimis regulations applicable to these sectors.  

Since NordForsk is financed by five Nordic states, our grants are divided into five parts when calculating de minimis support. As such, only 20 % of a grant count towards the de minimis limit for any one recipient. Consequently, only 20 % of 150.000 = 30.000 EUR counts towards the state aid funding limitations for each undertaking.

The overall objective of this call is to support research and innovation projects that strengthen food security by enhancing the resilience of food systems across the Nordic and Baltic region through improved crisis preparedness, resilient support systems, and shifts in consumer behavior:

• Advancing integrated approaches that connect technological, organisational, and institutional innovation
• Addressing both short-term shocks and long-term systemic stresses
• Strengthening the capacity of food systems to anticipate, respond to, and transform in the face of disruptions
• Supporting evidence-based policy development and implementation

Together, the three themes below address how food systems can anticipate and manage crises, ensure robust infrastructure and logistics, and reduce vulnerability by increasing the production and access to regionally produced food. The call emphasises both system-level and actor-level perspectives, and the interaction between physical, institutional and societal drivers of food security. Funded research is expected to generate knowledge and solutions that enhance long-term resilience, sustainability and emergency preparedness across Nordic and Baltic food systems.

The aim is to promote transdisciplinary research collaboration between research groups and relevant societal and business actors to develop new knowledge and build research expertise that is necessary to address the topics below. The call is not open to projects that are primarily aimed at developing new commercial technologies or solely aim to increase short-term profitability for participating industrial partners. 

The aim is to fund projects involving parts of the land-based value chain and/or parts of the sea food-based value chain, or combined projects.

Projects must address food security within at least one of these areas:
 

Research under this theme should strengthen Nordic and Baltic preparedness for food system shocks caused by climate change, natural hazards, geopolitical events or other systemic risks. This includes tools, models and frameworks for risk assessment, scenario planning, crisis management and coordinated emergency response across food system value chains.

This theme addresses the resilience and interdependencies of critical infrastructure supporting food production and distribution, such as transport, storage, energy and digital systems. Research should identify vulnerabilities, bottlenecks and cascading risks across agricultural and seafood supply chains and explore options for restructuring and strengthening these systems under future uncertainty.

Strengthening food security also depends on consumer choices and market demand. In particular demand for locally and regionally produced food is a key factor for ensuring stable access to food in all parts of the Nordic and Baltic region. This theme focuses on consumer attitudes, preferences and barriers related to choosing healthy, affordable, and locally or regionally produced food.

Research may address how factors such as culture, price, availability, information, labelling and policy incentives influence food choices, and how diets based on Nordic and Baltic resources can support food system resilience, sustainability, public health and preparedness.

Applicants are invited to apply for funding to establish a research project with a budget of maximum NOK 15 million and a duration of up to 4 years.

Funding may be used for costs that are necessary for the implementation of the project, such as:

• Salaries of researchers corresponding to the person’s activity level in the project
• PhD and post-doctoral positions corresponding to the person’s activity level in the project, and not covering salary during teaching or other departmental duties
• Running costs (data collection and analysis, consumables, minor equipment, premises)
• Mobility and research stays, travels
• Dissemination, outreach, and knowledge exchange activities (including open access charges)
• Stakeholder involvement/activities
• Indirect costs and overhead

Project owner and/or partners in the project can engage subcontractors to provide services that contribute to the implementation of certain tasks in the project. Subcontractors are not considered as consortium partners and may not be granted rights to project results. 

All costs must be explained. Indirect costs and overhead may be included. NordForsk does not apply any fixed rate or model for calculating indirect costs for research projects. Such costs should be determined by the participating institutions according to their own rules and models, and applicants are advised to consult these for further guidelines. The rate for overhead should be explained under the budget section on justification of resources. The feasibility of the budget will be assessed.

Partner institutions from outside the Nordic region must fund their own participation; however, travel and accommodation costs may be covered. Applicants and project participants from Estonian and Lithuanian must comply with national rules (see annex).

The project leader must submit the application form and the annexes on behalf of the research consortium electronically through the NordForsk Application Portal no later than 13.00 CET (Oslo Time) on 2. December 2026.

The following documents are mandatory:

• NordForsk full proposal form as specified in application portal.
• Research plan (max ten pages, including references).
• Communication and dissemination plan (max two pages).
• CVs including a list of up to ten publications and up to ten other key outputs (max three pages for project leader and max one page for each key researcher).
• Budget specifications (standard templates).
• Letter of Commitment from project owner.

Please find further instructions and details in the application portal.

All eligible proposals will be rated using a scale 1-7 (1=poor; 2= weak, 3= fair 4= good, 5= very good, 6= excellent, 7= outstanding) based on the criteria described below. 

An international expert panel will assess the proposals according to the following criteria:

• Contribution to call aims
  • The extent to which the proposed research is appropriate to the aims of the call
• Scientific quality
  • Clarity of objectives, research questions/hypotheses and project description
  • Soundness and credibility of concept and methodology (including, when relevant, interdisciplinary approaches, stakeholder involvement, consideration of the gender dimension in research content)
  • Potential to develop new knowledge beyond current state-of-the-art
  • Ethical considerations and how these will be handled
  • Credibility of expected research results, societal relevance, and potential for impact
• Nordic and Baltic added value
  • Potential to create benefits for the Nordic and Baltic research ecosystem (such as enhancing scientific excellence; achieving necessary critical mass and/or expertise; building competence; supporting mobility and networking; facilitating early-career researchers’ opportunities for building lasting Nordic and Baltic networks and future international careers; enhancing cost-effectiveness by sharing data and research infrastructure; developing or utilising particular Nordic and Baltic strengths or expertise, phenomena or data)
  •  
  • Potential to create benefits for Nordic and Baltic societies (such as addressing needs that are particular to the Nordic and Baltic countries considering similar societal structures, similar challenges concerning climate and biodiversity, shared cultural heritage; providing a strong and quality-assured knowledge base for policymakers, practitioners and other stakeholders; or creating new innovations, patents or solutions that help enhance development and co-operation in the Nordic and Baltic region)
• Quality of the research team
  • Experience, expertise and merits in relation to delivering the proposed research
  • Complementarity of the participants and extent to which the consortium as whole brings together the necessary expertise, including how the consortium partners jointly contribute to the project  
• Feasibility
  • Quality and effectiveness of the work plan, including extent to which financial and personnel resources are appropriately assigned in line with the objectives and deliverables
  • Appropriateness of the management structures and procedures, including risk management
• Communication and dissemination
  • Quality of plans for communication, dissemination and knowledge exchange including the extent to which such activities align with project objectives and target relevant stakeholders
  • Quality of open science practices in terms of sharing research data and outputs

The expert panel will provide a written statement, including a final overall grade for each proposal. Normally, proposals rated 4 or below by the expert panel will not be considered for funding by the NordForsk Board.

The Call Committee will assess the two criteria contribution to call aims and Nordic and Baltic added value. In addition, the committee may pursue a balanced portfolio of funded applications in relation to the call aims and objectives.

NordForsk's guidelines on impartiality will be applied to handle possible conflicts of interest.

The assessment process will be administered by NordForsk. The process leading up to a funding decision includes the following steps:

• Eligibility: Proposals will be subject to an administrative eligibility check examining the adherence to the requirements of this call. Only applications which meet all the conditions set out in this call text and annexes will be assessed.
   
• Peer review by expert panel:  The proposals will be evaluated by a at least three international experts, they will do the assessments individually and independently, using the assessment criteria as specified above, before they convene in a panel meeting to agree on the overall grade of the proposal.
• Call Committee: The Call Committee will assess the top-rated proposals, using the two assessment criteria as specified above. The Call Committee will recommend projects to be awarded funding to the NordForsk Board.
• Funding decisions: The NordForsk Board will take the final funding decision based on the recommendation from the Call Committee. This is expected to take place in Q2 2027. The funding agencies Estonian Research Council, Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania and Research Council of Lithuania will take their final funding decision on the national contributions, based on the recommendation of the Call Committee. The funding decision will be announced by NordForsk shortly after the funding decision has been made.  All applicants will receive written feedback from the expert panel.