Through the VISTA programme research centers are funded on a five-years scheme.
“VISTA Centres for Interdisciplinary Research on Future Energy Solutions” is designed to support basic research of relevance to the exploitation and use of fossil fuels.
Two centers were established in 2020:
- NTNU VISTA CAROS – Centre for Autonomous Robotics Operations Subsea
- CSD – Center for Modeling of Coupled Subsurface Dynamics
VISTA centers are funded by MNOK 5 annually for five years.
Interdisciplinary
The centers are to be interdisciplinary and located at a university at which the principal investigator holds a position and adhere to the principles of RRI (Responsible Research & Innovation).
The aim of the VISTA program is to support science that provides fundamental insight in three areas:
1) Basin analysis, efficient resource identification and utilization, and unlocking new resources
2) Future development solutions
3) Sustainability, environment and low carbon solutions.
Concept revamp
The ongoing energy transition demands scientific approaches that span many fields and require research that has excellent quality and is integrated in the international scientific community. At the same time there is a strong need for public outreach to support the decision-making that is needed for a low carbon future.
After almost 35 years of collaboration between The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and Equinor, it was decided to revamp the VISTA concept from funding PHDs, postdocs and a professor to funding research centers dedicated to defined research in line with the VISTA strategy.
“We believe these goals are best achieved within research centers that are tightly linked to our best research environments,” said chair of the Vista board, Ole M. Sejersted, when the new concept was launched.
