The recently appointed State Secretary Oddmund Hoel from the Ministry of Education and Research visited Noradapt on 24 January. Hoel serves as the State Secretary to the Minister of Research and Higher Education, Ola Borten Moe (Centre Party). Getting to know the work of Noradapt was a key element on his agenda.

The State Secretary, himself an academic (Professor of History at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, worked in Sogndal until his appointment by the Norwegian government this autumn. As such, Hoel is a person familiar to Western Norway Research Institute and Noradapt. Needless to say, Hoel has excellent insight into the Norwegian research sector.

Discussed funding

During his visit, Hoel was given a general introduction to Noradapt, ongoing research, and key activities in the first three years of the centre’s excistence.

“We presented ideas related to funding and a possible upscaling”, said Carlo Aall, the leader of the centre. Today, Noradapt receives an annual basic funding of NOK 5 million kroner. In addition, the 8 partner institutions acquire funding from other sources, such as the Research Council of Norway and Regional Research Funds. Aall explained why it is key to Noradapt’s further development that the centre’s annual funding undergoes a gradual increase over the next few years.

“Ideally we would like to triple the level of funding we have today”, says Aall.

Mitigation still dominates

The greater picture for climate research in Norway, in Aall’s opinion, including renewable energy research, is that the majority of all funding is spent on mitigation research. Only about 2 to 3 percent of the total funding is spent on adaptation research, a fact that concerns Aall.

“This is paradoxical for two reasons: Society pays a great deal for repairing damages caused by climate-related extreme weather events. In addition, we know that things are going to get rough once the pace of climate change increases, says Aall.

In addition to Western Norway Research Institute’s new director, Anne Karin Hamre, Hoel met with both Carlo Aall and Eivind Brendehaug from Noradapt, the institute’s Heads of Research, Halvor Dannevig (climate and environment) and Ivar Petter Grøtte (technology and society).