Norwegian research programmes
In Norway, public funding of energy research is concentrated in two programs administered by the Research Council of Norway. In addition, the private sector perform a considerable effort in R&D.
Centres for Environmentally-friendly Energy Research (CEER)
The Research Council of Norway in January 2009 named eight national research centres for environmentally friendly technology. Each centre will receive up to NOK 20 million a year for five years.
The eight research centres will focus on topics ranging from wind, solar and bioenergy to CO2 capture and storage and zero-energy housing.
The aim is for the centres to contribute to the development of good technologies for environmentally friendly energy and to raise the level of Norwegian expertise in this area. In the longer term, they should help to generate new industrial activity and new jobs.
Each of the centres is expected to be a national leader in its field.
Norway has the natural resources, community of experts, and social framework to become Europe's leading energy and environment-conscious nation, and will achieve this by becoming:
• A society with almost no greenhouse gas emissions;
• A major supplier of environment-friendly power to Europe;
• A favourable location for the world’s foremost energy and technology companies, especially in the fields of solar energy, offshore wind power and CO2 management.
CEERs must seek to enhance the quality of Norwegian research and generate applicable knowledge and solutions within a thematic priority area. To quality for funding as CEERs, institutions must exhibit higher goals, a longer term perspective and a more concentrated focus than is required under other Research Council instruments.
One of the objectives of the CEERs will be to promote researcher training in the field of environment-friendly energy.
The CEER scheme is based on experiences from and the contractual framework for the Centres for Research-based Innovation (CRI) and the Centres of Excellence (CoE), but unlike these the CEER scheme has a specific thematic focus.
Note: The Norwegian name of the scheme is Forskningssentre for miljøvennlig energi (FME).
Clean Energy for the Future (RENERGI)
The objective of RENERGI is to develop knowledge and solutions as a basis for ensuring environment-friendly, economically efficient and effective management of the country's energy resources, a highly reliable energy supply and internationally competitive industrial development.
Programme websites:
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