Frequently asked questions and answers

Complete and submit your application via My page. If you experience technical issues with an application, call us on 22 00 25 00 between 9:00 and 15:00 on weekdays.

We recommend discussing your application online with an advisor during the application process. You can start the conversation by completing a form on My page. We process applications on an ongoing basis, and processing times depend on the scope of your application.

Once we have assessed your application and made a decision, you will receive a formal offer or rejection from us. Please read the terms of the offer carefully. You must also sign and return it by the deadline to ensure that the offer does not lapse.

Read more about applications and the application process

• Individual customers
• Sole proprietorships
• Types of organisation registered in the Register of Business Enterprises at the Brønnøysund Register Centre (types of organisation registered only in the Central Coordinating Register for Legal Entities must also register in the Register of Business Enterprises)

Who can log in to My Page using BankID?

• People registered with a role in the Brønnøysund Register Centre (brreg.no), such as a board member or general manager
• Individual customers (agricultural customers)

Who is not eligible to apply?

• People who are not registered in the Brønnøysund Register Centre, such as auditors, accountants and project managers.
• Individuals representing foreign companies
• Individuals representing organisations that are only registered in the Central Coordinating Register for Legal Entities

If the total grant awarded to your company amounts to several million Norwegian kroner, we will convene an advisory panel. This means that we will invite your company to present its application to three to five external experts with technical, financial and market expertise. They will advise us on the project but will not make the final decision.

All panel members sign a confidentiality agreement before receiving information about the project.

Read more about advisory panels

Each year, we receive far more applications than we have funding available, and applications may be rejected for several reasons. If your grant application is unsuccessful in the competition for our funding, this is based on an overall assessment. Common reasons for rejection include insufficient capacity to deliver, insufficient own funding and a lack of market demand.

You have a general right to appeal decisions on applications for loans and financial guarantees, but not on grant applications. The exception is grants for investment and business development in agriculture, where you have the right to appeal under the ‘Regulations on funding for investment and business development in agriculture’.

Read more about rejected applications and your right to appeal

Credit information is information that indicates the creditworthiness of an individual or legal entity. We obtain credit information when there is a legitimate need, such as when processing applications, changing loan or guarantee terms, disbursing loans, and checking guarantors and co-borrowers.

Read more about how we obtain credit information

All our employees have a duty of confidentiality. This duty is governed by the Act relating to Innovation Norway Section 27, which states, among other things: Anyone who performs services or work for the company has a duty of confidentiality regarding any information they obtain in connection with their services or work about the business or private affairs of others.

We are subject to the Freedom of Information Act with the limitations set out in the Freedom of Information Regulations. This means, among other things, that decisions to approve funding are public information, regardless of whether the customer accepts the offer letter containing the decision and the applicable terms and conditions. We also publish decisions to approve funding on our website on an ongoing basis.

Read more about confidentiality and public access to information at Innovation Norway

We determine the level of support based on an overall assessment of how much public funding is needed for the project to proceed. If you receive another public grant towards the same project costs, we will take the total amount of public funding into account in our assessment. The total public funding for the same eligible costs must remain within the maximum permitted aid intensities under the State aid rules.

You must state in your application whether you have applied or intend to apply for other public funding for the project. When determining the grant amount, we will generally assume that you will not receive any public funding other than that stated in the application.

If circumstances relating to other public funding change during the application process or after funding has been approved, you must inform us as soon as possible, as this may affect the amount or payment of the grant (potentially resulting in the grant being reduced or withdrawn).

This does not prevent funding from being awarded to the same project for costs other than those included in the funding basis used by another funding provider. For example, this may apply to costs incurred in a different phase or to parts of the project that we do not fund.

An innovation project aims to develop or significantly improve a new product, process or service. The project centres on research and development activities.

You must be able to describe how innovative your project’s solution is compared with the best available solution on the market.

For some schemes, we require innovation at regional level, for others at national level, and for larger schemes at international level.

We can fund activities that give you further insight into the market you plan to enter. The activities you carry out as part of the project should also result in genuine market acceptance. Market acceptance is a requirement for Startup grant 2 and several of our other funding schemes. By market acceptance, we mean that an external party is willing to share the risk with you as you continue to develop your product or service.

Examples of market acceptance:

• A partner who contributes capital and/or expertise to the project
• An investor invests in the company
• Customers willing to pay
• Pilot agreement/letter of intent

If you have not yet gained market acceptance, you can apply for funding to establish it through Startup grant 1.

Our support must not distort competition unnecessarily. This means you need to explain how you stand out from your competitors and alternative solutions. You must demonstrate a good understanding of your competitors and clearly explain what makes your solution different. You must also be able to describe your competitive advantages.

When we assess applications, we consider your company's ability to deliver. This includes having the core expertise within your team and access to capital (under certain conditions, we accept SLIP agreements for startups), as well as support for the idea from your board and management. In other words, we need to see that you can deliver on your idea with the resources available to you.

To develop an idea, you need to investigate whether it is unique. In some cases, companies have worked on an idea for many years before discovering that someone else holds a patent that prevents them from selling it. You need a plan to protect your idea, an understanding of other solutions, and a clear description of what makes your solution unique.

At an early stage, you can use a confidentiality agreement when meeting potential customers or business partners. Read more about how to share confidential information securely.

On the innovation protection topic page you will find information about the different forms of protection and tips on what to consider.

Our advisors can provide practical advice and gather the right information, helping you make better decisions about protecting and commercially exploiting your intellectual property rights. 

Discuss your idea with our IPR advisors

You can also find plenty of useful information on the Norwegian Industrial Property Office website

For us to support your idea, the project must involve significant technical risk. You can describe this using the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale. You must also describe your company's commercial maturity using the Business Readiness Level (BRL) scale.

• Learn more about the scales in our course on management tools for technology development
• Read more about TRL and BRL in this article

All businesses we support must operate sustainably. You must prevent corruption, ensure good working conditions for your employees and those of your suppliers, and avoid harming society or the environment. You must take a considered approach to circularity and work to reduce your footprint.

Read more about sustainability and responsible business

We prioritise entrepreneurs and companies with innovative ideas that bring something significantly new to the market and have the potential and ambition to compete internationally.

This means there are some ventures we cannot support. Examples include businesses that ‘only’ create a job for the founder (‘lifestyle businesses’), hobby businesses run in the founder’s spare time, or services already provided by the public sector, such as childcare, healthcare and elderly care.

We prioritise development and growth – not day-to-day operations. We therefore cannot prioritise the establishment of traditional businesses in well-functioning markets, but we can help fund the development of technology or new solutions that drive innovation and improve efficiency. Our funding must not lead to unfair distortion of competition.

Examples of areas where a comparable, well-functioning market already exists:

• traditional retail (including imports, agencies and e-commerce)
• trade services
• transport services
• financial services (banking/insurance activities)
• liberal professions (lawyers, doctors, dentists, writers, etc.)
• personal services, including alternative therapies, hairdressing, skincare, etc.
• standard training and consultancy services/business advisory
• traditional café and restaurant operations

In light of this, we will not, for example, fund entrepreneurs developing standalone apps, apps for existing solutions and functions, or apps that are easy to develop and copy. The same applies to digital marketplaces and communication platforms, as well as products and services with limited benefit to society.

Outstanding payment defaults

If you or your company have any outstanding payment defaults, we cannot provide funding. These must be resolved before any funding can be granted.

Not a genuine new business

We do not provide grants for the takeover of an existing business.

Anyone with a role registered in the Brønnøysund Register Centre can view information under My page/Online banking.

Once you have logged in to My page and selected the relevant organisation, select Online banking from the top menu. From Account overview, you can initiate a payment.

Read more about disbursement and reporting

As a general rule, grants from us are taxable income under Section 5-30 (1) of the Norwegian Taxation Act.

However, some grants are not considered taxable income, provided that

• is awarded within a geographical area covered by Section 3 of the Regulations on the scope of regional investment aid (FOR-2021-12-14-3661)
• is for investments in fixed assets and associated production equipment granted pursuant to the regulations on funding for investment and business development in agriculture

Grants awarded under these regulations must not reduce the basis for depreciation either, cf. section 14-42(2)(a), second sentence, of the Taxation Act.

Read more about payments and reporting

You can apply to extend the payment deadline up to twice if needed. If you need to postpone your project or reallocate costs, please get in touch with your advisor. We must approve all significant changes to the project.

If you do not do this and fail to meet the deadline, we will issue a repayment demand.

Read more about disbursement and reporting

As the contact person for a project associated with us, you are likely to receive requests to take part in our customer survey. If your company receives funding, competence building or advisory services from us, we expect you to take the time to respond to these surveys.

It is very important for us to receive feedback on whether our work is effective. We conduct a range of surveys and evaluations to understand businesses’ satisfaction with and experience of the services we offer, as well as the results and impact of these services.

Evaluations of our financial services, as well as our competence-building and advisory services, are carried out exclusively by external experts to ensure independence and objectivity. You may therefore be contacted by an external expert who would like you to take part in a survey or interview.

All payments and communication regarding loans and grants take place via My Page (log in with BankID).

We will never ask for your bank account number, a copy of your ID card or other sensitive information by email, text message or phone.

If you receive an unexpected request for this type of information, do not respond. Contact our customer service centre if you are unsure or have any questions.

If you need to postpone your project or reallocate costs, you must contact your advisor. We must approve any significant changes to the project. If you do not obtain approval and fail to meet the deadline, we will request repayment.

You can also apply for a repayment deferral by logging in to My page. A repayment deferral means that you do not have to make one or more agreed loan repayments on the original due dates. The loan term will normally be extended by the same period.

When you receive funding from us, you must keep project accounts. These must follow the same cost breakdown as in your application. Before we can make an interim or final payment, you must provide confirmation from an auditor or accountant that the costs have been recorded and used as specified. You must explain any significant discrepancies in the project's final report, and we must approve them.

Read your offer letter for more details about the project accounting requirements.

Accountant’s review procedures for project accounts.

The final report describes the activities carried out in the project, their results and the next steps. Submit your final report via My page.

Once you have logged in and selected the relevant organisation, select Online banking from the top menu. From the Account overview, you can start completing your final report.

Anyone registered with a role for the organisation in the Brønnøysund Register Centre can view information under My page/Online banking and complete the final report.

You cannot grant other people, such as auditors, accountants or project managers, access to the funding page.

Only a limited range of activities can receive grant funding. These restrictions are set by the State aid rules that apply to us. Loans and financial guarantees have fewer restrictions on eligible activities.

The activities we can support depend on the scheme and the State aid provisions that apply. Speak to your advisor about the options available to you.

When you apply for funding, you must explain how the project will be fully financed. Most of our funding schemes require the founder and company to provide a certain proportion of the funding themselves. You must document that this funding will be available throughout the project period.

Your own work must be documented using timesheets, and approved work must be recorded as an expense in the company's accounts. This expense must correspond to the hours recorded for the project, multiplied by hourly rates that we can approve.

For companies required to keep accounts, we can only approve 'own work' where it is paid at an agreed salary and recorded in the accounts.

Read more about approved hourly rates

We cannot finance temporary capital outlays such as value added tax (VAT). Input VAT cannot be included in the basis for loans or grants from us.

Please note that you can claim a deduction for VAT paid during the three years prior to VAT registration.