In Norway, energy research funds are mainly allocated through the Norwegian Research Council (NRC). From here, funds separate into large programmes, namely ENERGIX, FME, NANO2021 and BIA. ENERGIX, the follow-up of RENERGI, responds to current climate policies in Norway through multi-disciplinary research activities. The € 50 M are announced via themed research proposals that also consider where projects are in the innovation chain. The 11 FME-centres are virtual research clusters, where the focus ranges from solar cell technology, sub-surface CO2 storage to zero-emission buildings.

CLIMIT, the research programme for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), positions Norway as a dominant investor of CCS RD&D in the Nordic Region. Funds from CLIMIT are divided along the innovation chain, where pure research projects are funded under the NRC and demo-projects under Gassnova, the state enterprise under the Ministry of Petroleum & Energy.

Closer to the market are institutions such as Innovation Norway & Transnova, which facilitate commercialisation of environmental technologies. Where Transnova addresses sustainable mobility through an open call, Innovation Norway targets entrepreneurs developing environmental technologies.

Energy research in Norway covers the social, economic and technical aspects of a more sustainable energy system, and is mainly organised under the Ministries. Compared with the other Nordic countries, Norway spends a moderate 1.7 % of GDP on RD&D, although clean energy research has increased rapidly in recent years.

Further information:

– Institutional structure of energy RD&D in Norway

– Public funding for clean energy RD&D in Norway

Notes: Circle-size represents average annual funding for each programme in millions of Euro. Hollow circles indicate the inclusion of funding not within clean energy topics. Clean energy refers to energy technologies that facilitate the transition to a more sustainable energy system.