Rejection and right of appeal

A common reason for rejecting an application is that the company lacks the capacity to deliver. This is often linked to your financial position and the amount of capital available to carry out the project. We provide partial funding, so we need to be confident that you can complete the project.

If your company has limited financial resources and lacks access to new capital, the financial risk is too high for us to participate in the project. Please also note that the state aid rules do not allow public funding for companies 'in difficulty'.

Other reasons why we may reject your application include insufficient expertise, a poorly composed team, limited ability to build networks or commercialise the solution, or an unclear business model.

Our funding aims to strengthen your company's competitiveness and drive growth and value creation in Norway.

Companies that receive funding from us must adhere to the principles of responsible business conduct. The project must be commercially viable and deliver value to society.

If your project lacks market potential, has no scope to scale and grow in the short or long term, or has a low level of innovation, it will not be eligible for funding from us.

In some cases, we may recommend a different funding option from the one you applied for. The grant amount and its percentage of the eligible costs may also be lower than your application requests. We base this on an overall assessment of your project and company.

Several members of our team carefully assess every application we receive.

Section 6, first paragraph, of the Innovation Norway Act states that the Public Administration Act does not apply to us. This means, among other things, that there is no general right under administrative law to appeal our decisions. However, separate appeal procedures have been established in certain areas on other legal grounds:

• Right of appeal under the Financial Contracts Act: You can appeal decisions on loans and financial guarantees in accordance with the Financial Contracts Act Section 3-53.
• Right of appeal under the Regulations on funding for investment and business development in agriculture: You can appeal decisions on grants for investment and business development in agriculture in accordance with the Regulations on funding for investment and business development in agriculture Section 5, third paragraph. You must appeal within three weeks of receiving the decision.
• Right of appeal under the Reindeer Husbandry Agreement: You may appeal decisions on grants under the development programme for agriculture- and reindeer husbandry-based growth and value creation in accordance with the Reindeer Husbandry Agreement between the Norwegian State, represented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and the Association of Norwegian Reindeer Herders, cf. Proposition 104 S (2012–2013), p. 45. You must submit your appeal within three weeks of receiving the decision.

We have established written procedures for handling appeals. You must submit your appeal via My page. Follow these steps to find the appeal form:

1. Log in to My page

2. Go to the Online Banking tab

3. Select Documents and letters

4. Click 'Appeal a decision' at the bottom of the page