Application deadline 

01.11.2024

Who can apply?

Permanent scientific staff can apply. The project must involve at least two participants from different disciplines and different faculties/VM at NTNU. Early-career researchers are particularly encouraged to apply.

What can you apply for?

The projects will receive funding for two 3-year RSO positions; either two PhD-positions or one PhD- and one postdoc position (preferred positions must be specified). 6 PhDs and 2 postdocs will be awarded in total. The positions will come with funds for operational costs at faculty standard levels. The need for additional operational costs must be covered by the involved departments/faculties or other funds. The departments of the project leader and deputy project leader will host the positions and be responsible for the recruitment process.

Requirements for the proposal

Three focus areas have been set to address the aim of NTNU Health and Life Science to provide knowledge and technology for a sustainable health service and health-promoting societies and environments (a comprehensive overview can be found on our website): 

• One Health: Understanding how the interdependence between humans, animals, plants, microbes, and their shared environment affect health of living organisms.
• Healthy life spans: Understanding causes of “lifestyle” diseases, how to prevent them and what promotes healthy lives.
• Value-based health services: Understanding how health systems and services can be designed and managed in order to improve quality of care, give value to the patient and  the society, and have an efficient use of resources.

In this call we ask for project proposals that address important knowledge- and technology gaps with high relevance for at least one of the three areas. The project must represent a novel and interdisciplinary approach to solving the research questions. The proposal must show how the results from the project will impact the area and contribute to more sustainable health services and/or health-promoting societies and environments. 

It is expected that the projects will contribute to building strong interdisciplinary research teams at NTNU that will continue research- and innovation activities within their scientific area through attracting external financing. We encourage formation of new interdisciplinary collaborations and to include external national and international collaboration partners, such as universities, public service, and private actors, in the projects. 

The division of work between the two funded positions in the project must ensure synergy and a common contribution towards the overarching objectives and research questions in the project. How this is solved and organized must be clearly described in the implementation section of the proposal. Any relation to other ongoing projects and coordination with these should be described. The project’s ability to be carried out within the given timeframe and available resources will be emphasized. 

The project proposal must be written using our template:

Download English template

Download Norwegian template

The proposal must be limited to max 5 pages + front page (Times New Roman, 11 points, 2 cm margins) and must be written in English or Norwegian. The template includes all elements of the proposals that will be evaluated, it is therefore important that all parts are completed in the given order. The project proposal shall consist of the following parts:

1. State of the art, knowledge needs, objectives and relevance to the call
2. Research questions, hypotheses, methodology, and approach
3. Potential impact 
4. Implementation 
5. Budget
6. References

The proposal must describe all resources necessary for a successful completion of the project. The budget must be specified using the table included in the template. Running costs, including travels and the use of labs and infrastructure, must be specified. Additional sources of funding must be specified.   
The project proposal must be uploaded as a pdf through our online form within 01.11.2024 (within 23:59). CVs (max 4 pages per person) for the involved project partners must be uploaded as a single, separate pdf in the form. 

Evaluation 

The project proposals will be evaluated by an external committee based on Relevance, Excellence, Impact, and Implementation in accordance with the criteria described below. In case of a large number of proposals, only the proposals deemed most relevant to the call will be selected for external evaluation by the leader group of NTNU Health and Life Science. Prioritization will be based on results from the external evaluation, but a need for diversity in topics to cover the thematic area and participating faculties will influence the final prioritization of awarded projects. 

We expect a decision on awarded projects within 31.12.2024. Projects must commence before the fall of 2025. The deadline for filling the awarded positions will be no later than 30.09.2025.

Contact 

Marius Widerøe, Director: marius.wideroe@ntnu.no  
Liv Eggset Falkenberg, Coordinator: liv.falkenberg@ntnu.no

Focus areas

Trygve Brautaset, Deputy leader/One Health: trygve.brautaset@ntnu.no 
Monika Haga, Deputy leader/Healthy life spans: monika.haga@ntnu.no 
Heidi C. Dreyer, Deputy leader/Value-based health care: heidi.c.dreyer@ntnu.no 

Evaluation criteria

Relevance

• Is the project proposal relevant for the Health and Life science area?
• To what extent does the project proposal align with one or more of the focus areas?

Excellence / Research quality

• How original, novel, and ambitious is the project? 
• How good is the quality of the research questions and project objectives?
• To what extent is the approach, choice of methods, and planned execution interdisciplinary, credible, and suited for reaching the project objectives?
• To what extent have the risks, uncertainties, and ethical issues been addressed?

Impact 

• To what extent is the project suited to meet important scientific and societal challenges?
• How good are the plans for translating project results into meaningful impact? 

Implementation

• To what extent does the project participants have the competence, experience, and ability to carry out the project with high quality?
• To what extent is interdisciplinarity represented in the project?
• Is the implementation of the project realistic within the given resources and timeframe?