FHF Aquaculture R&D Program

Sea Lice Control — Novel Technologies Testing

Funds exploratory seafood innovation in Norway by testing new ideas for sea lice control and prevention at sea.

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

FHF (Fiskeri- og havbruksnæringens forskningsfinansiering) is Norway's industry-financed seafood R&D body, funded by a mandatory 0.3% levy on seafood exports and governed under ministry oversight as a state-owned limited company. This 2026 call, with a budget of 10 MNOK, targets early-stage and proof-of-concept work on novel ideas, methods, or technologies for sea lice control and prevention in salmon aquaculture — the complementary, more exploratory counterpart to FHF's simultaneous 12 MNOK mature-methods call. Both carry the same June 19, 2026 deadline, and both sit within FHF's aquaculture fish-health and lice-control strategic area.

The call is open to companies, universities, and research organizations; Norwegian ID-porten portal access is required, so international teams must apply under a Norwegian-registered lead institution. Proposals must address a clearly identified gap in lice-control knowledge or technology, with a feasible testing or validation plan for the novel approach. No per-project cap is stated; FHF's aquaculture advisory resource group evaluates and selects projects, and one or multiple awards may be made from the 10 MNOK envelope depending on project scope.

To compete effectively, applicants should articulate what makes the approach genuinely novel relative to existing lice-control methods (mechanical, biological, pharmaceutical, or sensor-based), explain the testing protocol, and connect findings to scalable industry application. FHF favors applied research with near-term practical relevance to Norwegian salmon farming operations — early-stage science for its own sake, without an industry uptake pathway, is unlikely to score well against this funder's criteria.