A basic research program
Established in 1985, the VISTA programme was a collaborative partnership between the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and then Statoil (now Equinor) with the overall vision of stimulating basic mathematical and scientific research related to the exploitation and management of Norway's petroleum resources.
At all times during the first 35 years of the VISTA programme, around 25 PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and a professor were financed by the programme. In total, close to 300 students completed degrees funded by VISTA.
Key points of VISTA:
- An overarching goal was high-calibre research with a special emphasis on developing young researchers.
- Supported doctoral and post-doctoral research projects as well as a VISTA professorship within the defined priority areas.
- Aimed to be a programme that nurtured new, groundbreaking ideas related to the exploitation and management of Norway's petroleum resources.
- Aimed to be an arena for strategic discussion between academia, industry and society at large.
- The research areas:
- Exploration for oil and gas
- Increased recovery from hydrocarbon reservoirs
- Oil and gas processing
- Environment
- Biotechnology
- The programme’s main outputs were PhD and postdoctoral researchers; over its lifetime, close to 300 candidates completed degrees with VISTA funding. The final call for applications was in 2018.
- Since its inception in 1985 to 2019, the programme granted a total of ~ 470 million NOK (nominal, not inflation-adjusted) to early-career researchers and professorships.
In 2019 the VISTA programme was restructured into supporting basic research centres with a sustainable and low-carbon focus.
