– collect information about Norwegian research and make it available to other users
– simplify research-administrative tasks by facili-tating the reuse of research information – follow up the reporting of academic
publica-tions to the Ministry of Education and Research and the Ministry of Health and Care Services (reporting to the Norwegian Scien-tific Index – NVI)
Institutions that receive part of their funding through performance-based redistribution of the basic funding must report their academic publica-tions each year. Cristin receives the reports and processes the data. The data are then used by the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills – HK-dir (for universities and university colleges), the Research Council of Norway – NFR (for the research institutes), and the Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education – NIFU (for the health trusts), which in turn gener-ate data that are used as the starting point for the funding of the various research institutions. The ministries and the Research Council of Norway then use this material in their allocation of fund-ing.The Norwegian Register for Scientific Jour-nals, Series and Publishers is operated by the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir) in collaboration with the National Board of Scholarly Publishing (NPU), on commission from the Ministry of Education and Research. The pub-lication channels are the basis for the pubpub-lication indicator36 used in the funding systems for higher education institutions, research institutes and health trusts. The National Board of Scholarly Publishing (NPU) is responsible for the academic aspects and approves publication channels and their level (level 1 or level 2), based on proposals from the discipline-specific strategic units (approx. 80) in Universities Norway.
Cristin is more than a database of academic publications. Reports, lectures, interview partici-pation, textbooks, etc. can also be registered.
Some institutions have arrangements for internal rewarding of research dissemination activities that are not included in the reporting to the Nor-wegian Scientific Index (NVI).
The main categories for reporting of dissemi-nation activities are (with the number of subcate-gories in brackets):
– Journal publication (13)
– Conference contribution and academic pres-entation (4)
– Book (9)
– Report, thesis, dissertation (8) – Part of book or report (7) – Translation work (2) – Media contribution (4)
– Artistic and museum presentation (5) – Artistic work (6)
– Product (8)
– Information materials (4)
The reporting in Cristin beyond information needed for registration in the Norwegian Scien-tific Index (NVI) is probably inadequate. Since academic staff do not receive any recognition for this kind of work, and because registration is time-consuming, many do not prioritise this.
The inadequate and imprecise reporting of the institutions’ dissemination activities is something of a paradox in light of the fact that Norway is among the countries with the best and most detailed reporting of educational and research data in the world (cf. section 5.5). This is probably partly due to the fact that greater importance has been attached to educational and research activi-ties than dissemination activiactivi-ties in general, but also that educational and research activities are components in the funding system. When finan-cial incentives are tied to activities, precise and quality-assured data are essential.
5.3 Position structure and career paths
more closely linked to development work and ped-agogical activities than the «professor» professor-ship track, which is generally linked to the individ-ual’s research merit score. Nowadays, the
«dosent» professorship track is less commonly used, although people are still being appointed to assistant professor («lektor») and associate profes-sor («førstelektor») positions, especially in the pro-grammes of professional study. In addition to these two tracks, people are also employed in purely research positions, which are often tempo-rary or «fixed term» and often in connection with externally funded projects.
The requirements for the various academic positions, i.e. university college lecturer («høy-skolelærer»), assistant professor at a university col-lege («høyskolelektor»), assistant professor at a university («universitetslektor»), associate profes-sor «førstelektor»), associate profesprofes-sor («førstea-manuensis»), «dosent» professsor («dosent» ) and professor («professor») are regulated by the Regu-lations concerning appointment and promotion to teaching and research posts.38 These are general criteria for employment in teaching and research positions at the institutions covered by the Univer-sities and University Colleges Act. In addition to these general requirements, the institutions can establish their own requirements for the indivi-dual type of position. People employed in acade-mic positions can apply for promotion.
The assessment for appointment to academic positions has generally been based on research results, especially in the «professor» professorship track. More recently, however, and as a result of the white paper «Quality culture in higher educa-tion»39, greater importance has been attached to teaching qualifications. Since 2018, this has also been stipulated in the Regulations concerning appointment and promotion to teaching and research posts, in section 1-2 (3) and section 1-4 (3) on the positions of professor and associate pro-fessor.
Over the past decade, various international actors have identified a need to make changes to the merit ranking and evaluation systems for researchers. The international San Francisco Dec-laration on Research Assessment (DORA) was launched in 2012. In Norway, this is supported by the Research Council of Norway, among others.40 The declaration contains a set of recommenda-tions on good practices for measuring the quality of research, stressing that factors other than Jour-nal Impact Factor alone should be used in assess-ments in connection with funding, appointment or promotion. The EU has developed a framework for evaluating research careers that fully acknowl-edges the transition to Open Science practices.
The Open Science Career Assessment Matrix (OS-CAM) provides a range of possible evaluation criteria, including knowledge exchange with part-ners outside academia. In Norway, Universities Norway has followed up this initiative and has pre-pared a guide for recognition and rewards in aca-demic careers (NOR-CAM), inspired by OS-CAM.41 The European Commission recently issued a call for applications to form a coalition that will work on reforming research assessment, where also the manner in which researchers are assessed is to be improved.42 The Commission does not know whether these initiatives have led or will lead to actual changes in assessment for appointment and/or promotion. To the best of the Commission’s knowledge, nor have the authori-ties attached importance to incentives, results or plans to increase dissemination activity at univer-sities and university colleges, such as through their governance of underlying agencies and reporting requirements.
The framework for the positions of PhD candi-date («stipendiat») and post-doctoral research fel-low («postdoktor») is laid down in the Regulations concerning terms and conditions of employment for the posts of postdoktor (post-doctoral research fellow), stipendiat (PhD candidate), vitenskapelig assistant (research assistant) and
spesialistkandi-37 Frølich, N et al.: Attraktive akademiske karrierer? Søkning, rekruttering og mobilitet i UH-sektoren [Attractive aca-demic careers? Application, recruitment and mobility in the higher education sector]. Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU) report 2019:10 https://nifu.brage.unit.no/nifu-xmlui/handle/11250/
2608244
38 Regulations concerning appointment and promotion to teaching and research posts, Regulation no. 129 of 9 Febru-ary 2006
39 White paper Report no. 16 to the Storting (2016–2017) Kul-tur for kvalitet i høyere utdanning [Quality culKul-ture in higher education].
40 The Research Council of Norway – about the DORA Decla-ration https://www.forskningsradet.no/omforskningsra-det/stotter-dora-erklaringen/
41 Universities Norway (UHR): NOR-CAM – en verktøykasse.
Veileder for vurdering i akademiske karriereløp [NOR-CAM – A toolbox for recognition and rewards in academic careers] https://www.uhr.no/temasider/karrierepolitikk- og-merittering/nor-cam-veileder-for-vurdering-i-akademi-ske-karrierelop/
42 Process towards an agreement on reforming research assessment, European Commission. https://ec.europa.eu/
info/news/process-towards-agreement-reforming-research-assessment-2022-jan-18_en
dat (resident).43 However, it is up to the individual institutions to determine the specific academic requirements for employment in these temporary positions.
Over the past 20 years, there have been major changes in the recruitment landscape. A joint PhD degree has been introduced, and a Norwe-gian variant of «tenure track», known as
«innstegsstillingen» [entry position], has been adopted. During these years, strategic escalation of recruitment positions has presented new possi-bilities and challenges (see the Ministry of Educa-tion and Research’s strategy for researcher recruitment and career development from 2020).44
In 2020, 1634 doctoral candidates defended their theses. The gender balance has remained fairly stable since 2012, albeit with major differ-ences within the various fields, For example, in technology subjects around 25 per cent of the can-didates are women, while women account for approximately 60 per cent of the candidates in social sciences and medicine. The share of foreign nationals taking doctoral education in Norway is stable at around 40 per cent. Here, too, there are variations among the disciplines, and within the fields of science and technology, over 50 per cent of the candidates are foreign nationals. More and more people are being recruited to post-doctoral research positions from abroad, and in 2018 more than 70 per cent were immigrants or descendants of immigrants. It is unclear how large a proportion of the foreign post-doctoral fellows leave Nor-way.45
Approximately 10 per cent of doctoral theses are written in Norwegian, primarily in the social sciences, humanities and arts.
About a third of people who complete a doc-toral degree go on to a career outside the higher education sector. In some disciplines, such as technology, two-thirds of graduates leave aca-demia. Thus, there are many people in the work-force today who have a doctoral education, and this has been a conscious development on the
part of the authorities. Some 61 per cent of doc-toral candidates would like to pursue a career as a researcher in the higher education sector, the institute sector or the private sector.46
There is a special PhD in artistic development work for the performing and creative arts, based on artistic methods. The PhD in artistic develop-ment work shall both qualify candidates for fur-ther artistic development work within the artistic–
aesthetic field, and raise the level of competence of academic staff in order to provide the qualifica-tions required for employment in academic posi-tions in the higher education sector.
Most academic staff in the higher education sector divide their time between research and teaching, in so-called «combined positions». Dis-semination is a task that is explicitly included in some of the universities’ definition of research and development (R&D) time, with expectations that some of the allocated R&D time will be spent on research dissemination or other transfer of knowledge, such as participating in the public debate. Dissemination activity is also a criterion for the allocation of R&D time at some of the insti-tutions, although the Commission does not know the practical details of how this is practised.47
Currently, 12.8 per cent of employees in the higher education sector are in temporary posi-tions (not including recruitment posiposi-tions), which is higher than in the workforce in general (approximately 8 per cent in 2020).
43 Regulations no. 102 of 31 January 2006 concerning terms and conditions of employment for the posts of postdoktor (post-doctoral research fellow), stipendiat (PhD candidate), vitenskapelig assistant (research assistant) and spesialistkandidat (resident).
44 Ministry of Education and Research: Strategi for forsker-rekruttering og karriereutvikling [Strategy for researcher recruitment and career development] 2020 https://
www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/58a8bb9fe-cac4dd6aaf9ead1a6e3c1cd/strategi-forskning-web_uu.pdf
45 Figures from the Indicator Report 2021, the Research Council of Norway. https://www.forskningsradet.no/
indikatorrapporten/indikatorrapporten-dokument/. The Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU) and Statistics Norway (SSB) are collabo-rating with the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir), the Research Council of Norway (NFR) and the Ministry of Education and Research on a researcher recruitment monitoring programme that will follow PhD candidates from the time they are admitted to a doctoral education programme until they retire. This will eventually provide detailed information about career paths for doc-toral candidates educated in Norway. https://
nifu.brage.unit.no/nifu-xmlui/handle/11250/2837474 46 Reymert, Ingvild; Nesje, Kjersti; Thune, Taran
Doktorgradskandidater i Norge: Forskeropplæring, arbeids-vilkår og karriereforventinger [PhD candidates in Norway.
Researcher training, working conditions and career expec-tations]. Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU) report 2017:10 https://
nifu.brage.unit.no/nifu-xmlui/handle/11250/2445865 47 Report from a working group in spring 2021 including an
annex on principles for the distribution of R&D time at the University of Agder (UiA). (Case document for the meeting of the Board of UiA on 1 February 2022) http://open-gov.cloudapp.net/Meetings/uia/Meetings/Details/
568633?agendaItemId=215456