Norway looks for further compromise in excellence-funding debate

It’s a good compromise if each party is dissatisfied, the American statesman Henry Clay once observed. The government of Norway may now be finding the truth in this as its “innovative” way of selecting centres of excellence for funding attracts a hail of criticism from the country’s scientists.

Norway is planning to establish 13 centres of excellence in 2013, with a total budget of about 200 million Norwegian kroner (€28m) a year. The final selection for funding is being carried out by a group of three reviewers—one each from the physical sciences, the humanities and social sciences, and the life sciences.