PES: Financial support for EU project development and positioning for researchers at OsloMet

Project establishment funding is a strategic contribution from the Research Council of Norway that aims to ensure that applications with Norwegian participation in Horizon Europe (HEU) are of high quality and thus have a greater chance of success in HEU.

Please note that changes in the procedures for the allocation of PES funds have been introduced from January 1, 2025.

Project Establishment Support (PES) funds are intended to cover expenses for the development of applications to Horizon Europe (HEU). If you are planning an application to HEU, contact your local R&D support as early as possible, and no later than 3 months (coordinator) / 2 months (partner) before the call deadline, to ensure the best possible assistance and administrative follow-up.

Activities (costs) covered by PES funds:

• Travel and related expenses for the establishment of consortia and projects
• Consortium meetings for project development and project establishment
• External consultancy and application support related to project establishment and application development
• Piloting (data, laboratory, scientific assistant, and more)
• Buyout of time for application writing (Note: indirect costs are not covered)
• The funds cannot be used to cover internal costs of any partners, except for costs related to consortium meetings, etc.

PES funds PES funds are granted according to specific rates for given project types (see information further down the page). To be allocated PES, the HEU application must be reported by the applicant/project manager to local R&D support as early as possible and no later than 3 months (coordinator) / 2 months (partner) before the call deadline.

The project application must be anchored and approved by the institute/unit that will be responsible/owner of the project. Note that PES funds are paid to the unit retrospectively based on the submitted application (registered in the portal), submitted report, and completed activities. The unit thus covers the costs in advance. The funds will be paid out quarterly when the above criteria are met.

Extended allocation of PES funds If you are a coordinator and need additional support, you can apply for an extended PES framework of up to NOK 50,000 per project application. This means that a coordinator application can release a total of NOK 150,000 in PES funds. Applications for additional coordinator funds must be received at least 1 month before the application deadline. Contact your local R&D support.

If you are unsure whether your application qualifies for PES funds, or if you have other questions about the scheme, send an email to your local R&D support at your faculty/institute/unit.

For administration: procedures for managing and disbursing PES funds 

When the planned HEU application is anchored and approved locally, the local R&D support should, as soon as possible, report to the central R&D support via the online form (nettskjema.no). A separate internal work order must be created for the PES funds. This means that the unit must keep a separate project account that makes it possible to identify the costs for the specific allocation. This project account is the report that is sent to the R&D department.

No later than 1 month after the last planned activity, a simplified project financial report must be sent to central R&D support (berittjo@oslomet.no; vso@oslomet.no) at OsloMet showing the incurred costs associated with the activities. This forms the basis for the final disbursement of PES funds. Only incurred and approved costs (up to the granted amount) during the activity period are covered.