The five databases have all been successful in the fierce competition for funding for research infrastructure, for which the Research Council of Norway will be allocating a total of NOK 500 million following the first call for proposals in 2009.
Strategically important
"The five projects that have now been allocated funding all show extremely high scientific merit, and are all nationally-oriented and of considerable strategic importance for Norwegian research", says Anders Hanneborg, Executive Director of the Division for Science at the Research Council of Norway.
Broad range
The funds have been allocated across a broad range of disciplines. The text corpus of medieval texts has considerable importance for medieval research, in particular for a number of high priority research projects in Norway and the Nordic region (Host: The University of Oslo. Allocation: NOK 7 million).
Research infrastructure for syntax and semantics will be highly significant for research in the field of linguistics and language technology and could enhance Norwegian research at the international level in an area where Norway already has leading research groups (Host: Unifob AS, Bergen. Allocation: NOK 19 million).
The expansion of the already much used international dataset of armed conflicts at the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) will also help to further strengthen the international standing of Norwegian researchers (Allocation: NOK 8 million).
Life course studies have long been an important research area for social science and health science disciplines alike. The infrastructure that has now been allocated funding will ensure the effective management of various types of data and is expected to have a considerable impact on empirical research in a number of crucial social fields (Host: Norwegian Social Research (NOVA). Allocation: NOK 6 million).
The satellite database will be a significant Norwegian contribution to international climate research (Host: Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NERSC). Allocation: NOK 25 million). In the long term the project will in all likelihood be important for the Norwegian shipping industry, petroleum exploration, meteorology and management of the sea areas.
A number of the databases support Nordic or European initiatives that aim to develop common international research infrastructures.
Ten year strategy further funding announcements
The Research Council Executive Board decided in December 2008 to expand the framework of the first round of allocations of funds for research infrastructure from NOK 400 million to NOK 500 million.
The financing initiative for research infrastructure is partially fund-based, and the Research Council expects to issue new regular funding announcements within the framework of the national focus on research infrastructure in the years up to 2017.
