forskning.no is an online newspaper devoted to Norwegian and international research.

forskning.no is the Nordic countries’ largest online news service covering Norwegian and international research.

forskning.no aims to be thought-provoking and arouses scientific curiosity. It serves as a resource bank for users, providing fresh insights and understanding.

forskning.no consists of news, background articles, facts and multimedia presentations about all scientific research topics.

forskning.no operates under the Norwegian editorial declaration (Redaktørplakaten) and other journalistic principles.

forskning.no is comprised of a central editorial staff of 10 in Oslo, a freelance network and other contributors.

forskning.no is the property of The Association for ownership of forskning.no, which is a nonprofit organization.

Members of forskning.no, mainly research facilities and educational institutions, can submit contributions for evaluation by the editorial staff for publication on the website. Submitted articles will undergo editorial review and editing before being published on the site, hereby also passing on all editorial responsibility for the published articles to forskning.no. Articles submitted by our members are marked by a handshake symbol.

forskning.no’s editor in chief is Nina Kristiansen [nina@forskning.no / (+47) 41 45 55 13]. She is master of philosophy in Media Studies from the University of Oslo and has career experience from KILDEN Information Centre for Gender Research in Norway, the Research Council of Norway and the University of Oslo.

The board chairman at forskning.no is Lars Holden, managing director at the Norwegian Computing Center. The deputy chairman of the board is Mona Gravningen Rygh, director of the Department for Communication at the Research Council of Norway.

History

forskning.no was founded in 2002. The Research Council of Norway took the initiative and 12 research institutions were affiliated from the start.

The key idea was simple: Establish an information initiative for the dissemination of research and then pass control to an independent editorial office working in accordance with Redaktørplakaten and established journalistic rules and principles.

This collaboration currently involves 71 research and educational institutions, which can send in contributions, which are evaluated for publishing, and which are clearly marked with the institution as the contributor.

An editorial staff consisting of three − later five − persons was established in Oslo. Ingrid Spilde, Kristin S. Grønli and Arnfinn Christensen were also on the staff from the start, and these three are still at forskning.no today. The editorial office now consists of 10 persons: six journalists, an editor in chief, editorial manager, editorial assistant and a subeditor.

Readers flocked to the website from the start. The number of hits was immediately substantial and expanding. We now get 300,000 hits a day and 200,000 unique users a month. Five percent of our readers are young (≤ 19 years), but the average reader is in the mid-thirties, well educated and is more often male than female.

Other media also pay attention to forskning.no and they quote us daily. We have contracted a deal for sharing articles with the newspapers Aftenposten, Nationen and with NRK Viten.

In 2008 forskning.no was re-launched with a more distinct news profile, additional regular columns and the introduction of social media. Readers validated the transformation by more frequent visits to the website. Now, 50 percent of them read forskning.no on a daily basis, with the rest visiting several times a week, once a week or less.

forskning.no cooperates closely with its younger “sister”: videnskab.dk. Together with partners from other Nordic countries, we plan to launch a news service in English covering Nordic research in late 2011.