He was accused of closing the door on young researchers. But now the Research Council is being praised

Research Council

The Research Council removes Fripro’s age limit. Researchers now no longer have to be under 40 to be classified as “Young Talent”.

– We are happy about this. We appreciate that the Research Council here is responsive and solution-oriented in this process, says Nils H. Korsvall, President of the Younger Scholars Academy.

They objected to the fact that the Research Council in February made it more difficult for a number of young researchers to apply for funds for ground-breaking research under the Freebro scheme.

But at a board meeting on Friday, the board met up with the young researchers.

close the door

The background to the Fripro scheme changes is that Minister Ola Borten Moe (Sp) is demanding that the success rate for Fripro applications be as high as 25 per cent. Among other things, the Council stressed the so-called Research Project for Regeneration.

The new requirement was that you must wait six years after completing your PhD before you can apply for funding. Thus this arrangement has been reserved for experienced researchers. Younger researchers have been referred to another scheme within Fribro, the Young Talents Research Project.

But here too, there are restrictions on who can apply. You must be under the age of 40 and two years must have passed since you submitted your dissertation.

The result was that researchers doing their dissertations in their late 30s fell between two chairs. If you’re arguing 38, you’re too old to apply for Unge’s talents, and have to wait six years before they can apply for renewal.

“The Research Council closes the door for young researchers”wrote the Academy of Junior Researchers in an article in Chrono.

Remove age limit

But the Research Council listened to the protests and decided to reassess the matter. At the board meeting on Friday, the board decided to abolish the 40-year-old age limit for young talents and include them in advertisements in the fall of 2023.

After our meeting in February, we received clear feedback that the changes would have devastating consequences for some researchers early in their careers. This is why it is right and important that we now remove the age limit for young talent at Freebro, says research board chair Kristen Halvorsen in a message at Scientific Research Council website.

Niels H. commends. Courseful on the Research Council approach.

– It was a very positive experience.

Engfield Rimmert at the Academy of Younger Researchers did it He first raised the issue on Khrono.

Now you say:

– It’s very cool if they change it. They listened to us, younger researchers. I would like to thank the Research Council and Mary (Sundli Tveit, journals .anm.) for their response. It shows that it is worthwhile to talk.

The Young Talent Scheme is described as follows on the Research Council website:

“The support will give young research talent under the age of 40 the opportunity to pursue their own ideas and lead a research project. This call is extended to researchers early in their careers, two to seven years into their advocacy, who have demonstrated the potential for research of high scientific quality.”

Now the requirement “under 40 years old” disappears.

– For researchers to be early in their careers, even if they’re a little late in life, that’s something we’ve been aware of and been looking at for a while. So that being present early in one’s research career isn’t age-related, we think it could be a simple step to ensure people don’t end up between two chairs, which was a problem with the previous decision, says leader Nils Korsvall of the Academy for Young Researchers.

Removing the age limit could also be beneficial if you want to work towards more mobility in the sector, he says. For example, if people obtain a PhD after several years in another sector, the age limit to apply for research funding can be discouraging.

If you receive support through the Young Talent Scheme, you will receive between NOK 4 and 8 million for a project that will last three to four years.

It can have negative consequences

But removing the age limit could also have negative consequences, in the Research Council’s view.

Like I said, he wants to reduce the number of applicants for Fripro, so that the approval rate goes up.

Removing the age limit could also lead to more people applying for Unge talents.

“There is a risk that the type of application will, to a lesser extent, meet the original purpose of contributing to an attractive research career for young people, where portions of the funds are likely to go to older researchers,” reads the case submission to CEO Mary Sundley Tveit.

At the same time, the Research Council’s new Scholar and Early Career Recruitment Scheme puts more emphasis on sector mobility. Sundli Tveit thinks this speaks to him being less concerned with the researchers’ age.

The Research Council reports that the Research Project for Young Talents will also get a new name from the fall.