The Norwegian Government is proposing a new program, which among other highlights a research pilot program that aims to increase the labour market relevance of a PhD where the 4th year (“pliktåret” of a 4 year PhD with 25% work duties) can be used for more career oriented activities other than teaching. There are two ways of implementation of this goal:
a) Practice in a business/organization/institution
b) Work done on behalf of a business/organization/institution, doing project work for these.
Fall 2021 will see the implementation of this program.
The Norwegian Government is also in collaboration with the universities developing a strategy for research recruit and career ways, which will be public in Spring 2021. The strategy will serve as information which decisions on researcher recruitment and career development can be made by the universities. It will also focus on: temporal employment, unclear an diffuse career ways, low amount of Norwegians in technology.