Programme for early-stage innovation projects at HVL

The deadline to apply is April 4 2024 at 23.00 Norwegian time.

Proposal template

 

Innovation is about using new knowledge to stimulate development and change. This includes new or significantly improved products and services, processes, concepts, organisational or management forms or concepts used to achieve value creation and/or societal benefit. HVL places a particular emphasis on responsible innovation. By responsible innovation, we mean innovations that consider both economic, environmental, social and ethical aspects. Program for ideutvikling at HVL is intended to serve as a springboard for projects that will lead to new projects, products, services, processes or other forms of innovation that will benefit society.

About the call

The objective of this programme is to support early-stage innovation projects and encourage employees and students to be creative, solution-driven and innovative. The programme aims to support projects in a phase where it is necessary to test, document or demonstrate that an idea, method, concept or other forms of work results has potential and is feasible so that the idea can ultimately be used to the benefit of society.

For those familiar with the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale, this means that the programme focuses on projects with a maturity level around the TRL 3 level (proof of concept), with a focus on the demonstration or testing of an idea or concept. This DOES NOT mean that your project has to be technological in nature in order to qualify for funding under this programme. The TRL level only refers to the maturity level of the project in this context.

HVL defines innovation broadly, so social innovation, service innovation, innovation in the public sector, process innovation and other types of innovation are all relevant to this programme, including innovations that could have commercial potential. The programme is, therefore, relevant to all scientific employees and to all students at HVL. The important point is that there should already be some research or studies underlying the idea you plan to develop further.

Who can apply

The main target groups of this programme are scientific employees, which include PhD students employed at HVL and registered bachelor and master students at HVL. Other employees at HVL can also apply, given the proposed idea is in line with the call requirements:

• To be eligible to apply for funding, it is a requirement that your idea is based on your research or studies at HVL.
• All employees who apply must have at least a 50% position at HVL.
• Bachelor’s and master’s students who apply must have an academic supervisor employed at HVL.

How much funding can you apply for?

Bachelor’s and master’s students can apply for 30-100 000 NOK per project. Scientific employees, including PhD students employed at HVL, can apply for 100-500 000 NOK per project. The final budget for each funded project might be adjusted after the evaluation process.

The estimated total funding available under this call in 2024 is 1,5 mill NOK. The final total funding amount will be confirmed once the HVL 2023 budget process has been finalized. This pot covers projects from both employees and students.

What types of costs does the programme fund?

• Salary costs (only for scientific employees)
• Materials and equipment
• Procurement of external competence needed for the project to be successfully implemented
• Renting of incubator space
• Costs associated with prototyping and testing, such as using laboratory facilities etc.
• Patenting costs (only for student projects and limited to patent exploration costs and the 1st filing of a patent.)

What costs cannot be funded under this programme?

Program for ideutvikling is first and foremost an innovation programme, where the primary objective is to test out early-stage innovation ideas originating from your research or studies. Accordingly, the following activities will not be eligible for funding under this programme:

• Costs related to basic research. Projects that are primarily research projects with the aim of generating new knowledge are not considered to be innovation projects and will not be eligible for funding under this programme.
  
  
• Costs related to development after the verification phase. You should consider applying for funding under other sources if your project is beyond the “early stage”, for instance:
  • If you already can apply, or have applied, for funding under other, larger programmes for the same idea, such as the Norwegian Research Council or the EU
  • If you have already submitted a Disclosure of Invention (DOFI) on your idea to one of the commercialisation partners of HVL. Commercialisation projects are usually at a more mature stage than the verification phase. Accordingly, as a general rule commercialisation projects are not eligible for funding under this programme. If you have already submitted a DOFI, your proposal may still be considered for funding, but in this case you will have to describe clearly in your proposal why funding under Program for ideutvikling is necessary to realise commercialisation at a later stage. You should also keep in mind that Program for ideutvikling does not fund activities directly linked to commercialisation, as described below.
• Projects that are primarily education projects, where the main objective is to create new study programmes, subjects or courses, are beyond the scope of this programme, and will not be considered for funding. There are other programmes that could be considered for such projects, for instance under HK-Dir.
  
  
• Costs related to communication, marketing or commercialisation activities (with the exception of patenting costs for students as mentioned above). Such costs include for instance:
  • publishing costs
  • conference participation
  • event organisation support
  • costs related to starting a student company

It is not possible to apply for funding if your idea is not a result of your research or studies at HVL. Ideas that have previously received funding under the Program for early-stage innovation projects are also not eligible.

Proposal development support

All bachelor and master students must register their proposal at HVL Skape and will receive support from HVL Skape in developing their proposal.

HVL employees will be offered up to 1 hour of support from AFII, based on capacity and the availability of research advisors. Therefore, contact AFII well ahead of the call deadline if you are interested in such support.

How to submit the application?

All applicants must use the proposal template on this webpage. Proposals that do not use this template will not be considered. It is possible to include other types of attachments when submitting the proposal, but the final application cannot exceed 5 pages in total.

All applications must be submitted to innovasjonafii@hvl.no, with Terje Gravdal (Terje.gravdal@hvl.no) in copy. The deadline to apply for funding is April 4 2024, at 23.00 Norwegian time. This deadline is final, and proposals submitted after this deadline will not be considered.

How are the applications evaluated?

After the deadline, all proposals will undergo initial administrative processing to ensure that all formal requirements are met. All proposals that fulfil the formal criteria will be forwarded to an external committee of evaluators. The evaluation committee will consider each proposal based on the evaluation criteria below. The applicants who receive the highest score on their proposals will be invited to present their idea to the evaluation committee.

The evaluations will then result in a list of proposals recommended for funding. The list will be presented to the Programme committee of the innovation programme. The Programme committee decides which projects will be funded by the programme.

The announcement of the funded projects is expected in the second half of May 2024.

Evaluation criteria

Evaluation criteria 1: Innovation potential and societal benefit:

• Challenge and proposed solution: What is the challenge the idea aims to solve? How does the idea represent something new and ambitious, and how new is the idea compared with existing solutions? How solid is the research the idea is based on, and how realistic is the approach of this project?
• Benefits to society and added value: What use does the idea represent to society? What are the possible usage areas for the idea? Who are the relevant end-users, and what is the potential value for these end users? Will the project contribute towards the UN Sustainable Development goals?

Evaluation criteria 2: Project implementation and project group:

• Progress plan: How do you plan to carry out your project during the project period? Does the plan have a realistic approach? What are the most important milestones of the project? Are there any ethical, societal or environmental aspects relevant to the project, and how do you plan to address them?
• Project group and infrastructure: How is the composition of the project group, and which competence does each project participant bring into the project? Is there any relevant project infrastructure that will be used in the project, such as research laboratories etc? Will the project be carried out in collaboration with external project partners, and what is their role in the project?
• Budget: How is the budget comprised, and how do you plan to spend the funding during the project duration?

Evaluation criteria 3: Exploitation of project results:

• Project results and plan for further development: What specific results and deliverables will emerge from your project if it is successfully carried out? How do you plan to exploit the results after the end of the project? Is it relevant to apply for external funding under national or international programmes? Is commercialisation an option, or other ways to utilise your results? How realistic is it that your idea will be realised after the end of this project?

Project start and duration

All projects must start before the end of 2024, and end within 12 months from the start of the project. After the project has ended, each applicant must submit a final report describing the project's results, and how the funding from the verification programme has been spent.

Contact

If you would like more information about the innovation programme, you are welcome to contact Terje Gravdal, terje.gravdal@hvl.no (for employees) or Benedicte Meydel, benedicte.meydel@hvl.no , (for students).