Business networks in other agriculture- and reindeer husbandry-based industries

Does your company need help strengthening collaboration with other businesses, building trust, and identifying shared challenges and interests?
To personer som er konsentrert om jobb
© Igor Emmerich
Type of service
Grants
Target group
Other agriculture- and reindeer husbandry-based industries
Application deadline
Ongoing
How much
Up to NOK 1 million

SMEs with ambitions for growth that want to establish commercial and strategic partnerships with other companies. The business network must comprise at least three small and medium-sized enterprises with established commercial operations and be registered in the Norwegian Register of Business Enterprises.

  • The majority of businesses in the network must operate commercially using agricultural resources
  • Primary agricultural producers, freshwater and inland fisheries, and food businesses that develop, process and sell quality products made from local ingredients
  • Tourism businesses looking to develop products and services based on agricultural resources, including food, accommodation, dining, nature- and culture-based activities and experiences, game and other uncultivated land resources
  • Inn på tunet providers approved under the Norwegian Food Foundation's certification schemes

Priorities may vary between counties. See the regional guidelines for your region.

Grants help small and medium-sized enterprises with growth ambitions establish strategic, market-oriented commercial partnerships with other companies. These partnerships should build competence and support the development and realisation of new market opportunities in existing or new markets in Norway or abroad, based on the companies' existing products and services.

Business networks for agricultural enterprises offer grants in three phases:

1. Feasibility study
We provide grants of up to NOK 100,000, covering up to 100% of the cost of external assistance for an initial assessment of market potential and the recruitment of relevant businesses. No self-financing is required.

2. Preliminary project
We provide grants of up to NOK 300,000, covering up to 50% of approved eligible costs. You must fund 50% of the project's total cost. For sole proprietorships (ENK), general partnerships (ANS) and partnerships with shared liability (DA), your own funding may consist of up to 50% unbilled work and 50% cash contribution.

Once you have completed the preliminary project, you must have a detailed business plan and a plan for continued collaboration.

3. Main project

The business network can receive up to NOK 1 million per year for three years, with the possibility of funding for a fourth year. Our share of the funding may cover up to 100% of the approved eligible costs, such as network administration, project management, purchased services and meeting expenses.

The project must help put the business plan into action and deliver the planned activities and measures. The participating companies must sign a letter of intent and provide a business plan/business model. 

1. Complete and submit your application

You can find the agricultural funding application form by logging in to 'My page' with BankID. We will ask you to provide the information and documentation we need to assess your project. In the application, you can use the 'Talk to an adviser' button to ask for guidance before submitting it. Remember, you must submit your application before starting the project.

2. Assessment

We process applications on an ongoing basis, and several people assess each application. Our guidelines and regional priorities determine which projects we can fund. We receive many applications and have limited funds, so we cannot approve every application.

3. Decision

Your customer adviser presents your application to the decision-maker. Once we have made a decision, we will notify you by email, and you can find the decision on My page. If we offer you funding, read the terms and find out how we make payments.

Key conditions for funding

To receive services from us, your company must uphold the principles of responsible business conduct and actively consider its own sustainability risks. Read more about sustainability and responsible business conduct.

State aid rules

Funding from Innovation Norway must comply with State aid rules. There are five general conditions for State aid that must be met.

The General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) is part of the State aid rules. It contains provisions that allow us to provide support to companies in various circumstances. One or more provisions may apply to each case. Read more about GBER.

Legal basis for the scheme

Our funding schemes have been notified to the EFTA Surveillance Authority, ESA. The legal basis for these notifications is available on the National Legal Basis page.

Other public funding

You must state in the application whether you have applied or intend to apply for other public funding for the project. We also determine the level of our funding based on an overall assessment of how much public funding is needed for the project to proceed.

When determining the grant amount, we therefore assume that you will not receive any other public funding, including SkatteFUNN, beyond what is stated in the application. This applies to funding for the project costs used to calculate our grant (eligible costs). If you nevertheless receive other public funding, including SkatteFUNN, after we have made our offer, and it covers the same costs, we may reduce or withdraw our grant accordingly.

This does not prevent the company from receiving other public funding for project costs other than those on which we have based our assessment.

Apply here
You can find the application form by logging in to My page with BankID.
Frequently asked questions and answers about agriculture