National strategies, policy and guidelines

This means that all public research institutions in Norway must comply with requirements and expectations set by the Ministry of Education and Research. In addition, there may be requirements tied to specific research projects and programmes, where the Research Council of Norway is the most important national funder.

Ministry of Education and Research

The Ministry of Education and Research allocates funding for research and higher education at universities, university colleges and other institutions. It has drawn up guidelines and a strategy for access to research results funded by public money.

The National goals and guidelines for open access to research articles from August 2017 has as its main goal that all research articles funded by public money should be openly available by 2024. This can be achieved through publishing in open journals or self-archiving in an academic repository. Guidance is also given for negotiations with academic publishers.

The deadline for full open access has now passed, and the goal was not fully reached. Norway is nevertheless well ahead internationally, with around 80 percent of research output openly available (see annual updates on the OA-barometer). This was the background for HK-dir, Sikt and the Research Council being tasked, through the Long-term Plan for Research and Higher Education 2023–2032, with charting the way forward. This work resulted in the Strategy for scientific publishing after 2024 (December 2023), which presents recommendations to researchers, research-performing institutions, research funders and the authorities.

In December 2017, a National strategy on access to and sharing of research data was published, with similar expectations that research project data should also be open. This strategy is built on three main principles:

• Research data should be as open as possible, and as closed as necessary.
• Research data should be managed and curated so that its value can be exploited as fully as possible.
• Decisions on archiving and making research data available must be taken within the research communities.

The strategy emphasizes the importance of good data management, including preparing a data management plan, and states that research data should be made available to support verifiability and reuse. It also sets clear expectations for Norwegian research institutions, including measures such as: training staff and students, procedures for approving data management plans, developing data-management guidelines, and taking part in developing standards and best practice for data sharing and reuse.

The Long-term Plan for Research and Higher Education 2023–2032 (Meld. St. 5, 2022–2023) sets requirements for high quality and accessibility in research and higher education, including open access to publications. The plan continues the Government's goal that all publicly funded Norwegian research should be openly available. It calls for support of flexible, forward-looking licenses, including rights related to text-and-data mining and artificial intelligence, and for Norwegian participation in European research cooperation.

Meld. St. 14 (2024–2025), "Secure knowledge in an uncertain world," (no English version available) sets the framework for how the research system should be equipped to meet the future. The goal of full and open access to scientific research results remains unchanged. The white paper stresses the need for sustainable solutions in a time marked by geopolitical tension and tighter economic constraints. Among other things, the Storting asked the Government to draw up a plan for better coordination to strengthen Norwegian research, development and innovation activity. This was addressed in Innst. 290 S (2024–2025), dated 15 May 2025. 

The Research Council of Norway

The Research Council also aims for research to be "as open as possible, as closed as necessary," and sets requirements — in line with the Ministry's guidelines — for projects that receive funding.

In 2014, the Research Council adopted a policy on open access to scientific publishing, requiring that articles from funded projects be made openly available within 6 or 12 months of publication (depending on field). This deadline still applies to projects awarded funding before 2021.

From 2021 onward, the requirement was tightened in line with Plan S: the Research Council now requires full and immediate open access to all scientific publications from funded projects, with no embargo and under an open license (normally CC BY) that permits reuse. Authors must also retain the rights needed to make a peer-reviewed version of the article openly available, even if it is published in a subscription journal.

The Research Council is part of the coalition behind Plan S. 

The Research Council also has a policy on making research data available — The Research Council of Norway's Policy for Open Access to Research Data. This sets out expectations that funded projects deliver a data management plan with the revised application (or justify why one isn't needed), plus a final version at project completion. The plan must describe data management in the project, including sharing and archiving research data, and how data will be made as FAIR as possible. In some cases, the Research Council sets specific requirements for where data must be archived after the project ends.

In January 2020, the Research Council launched a new policy for open science work, bringing together its various guidelines and activities, with three main goals:

• contributing to a well-functioning research system
• contributing to sustainable societal development
• strengthening trust in research

See the Research Council's overview page on open science.

The principle "as open as possible, as closed as necessary" is emphasized, with research integrity, accountability, quality and knowledge development as the basis for assessments. Most existing requirements and guidelines on publishing and research data are largely continued. Among newer measures particularly relevant to libraries at research institutions are those related to knowledge and competence in open science — both giving researchers and students a basic understanding of open science, and the emergence of new, more specialized roles such as data curators and "data stewards."

The Norwegian Research Information Repository (NVA)

In 2025, The Norwegian Research Information Repository (NVA) was introduced. NVA continues and replaces CRIStin's role as the national system for registering, archiving and disseminating scientific publications, and is operated by Sikt. The archive is intended to help realize the Government's goal that all Norwegian scientific articles funded by public money should be openly available.