Norwegian version

About SIFO

Researchers in numbers

Researchers
39
Research professors
10
PhD candidates
6

Consumption Research Norway (SIFO) is a non-profit, transdisciplinary research institute at the Centre for welfare- and labor Research (SVA) at OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University.

SIFOs research aims to:

SIFOs research is financed partly by a state budget grant, partly through project grants from Norwegian Research Council and the EU (Horizon Europe). Most of SIFOs research goes on in commissioned projects, acquired through tender competition. SIFO has currently 50 employees, 40 of which are researchers.

SIFO have a history way back into the 1930's and the birth of home economics. Until recently laboratory work and product testing was a central part of the institute's operations. Today there are no laboratories left and the institute staff consists mainly of social scientists. Some of them though have double competences, e.g. in ethnography and textile sciences, or in sociology and engineering.

Core research areas

Please take me back to the SIFO front page.

What is consumption?

In SIFOs definition, consumption is a process encompassing activities related to planning, purchasing, using and possibly reusing, repairing and finally disposing and recycling of consumption goods.  

Methods and approaches

SIFO’s researchers apply different overlapping (and sometimes competing) empirical approaches, e.g:

Cooperation and research projects

SIFO cooperates closely with other Norwegian and European research institutes and universities as well as with organizations like the Consumer Council of Norway and authorities like The Consumer Authority. SIFOs researchers publish in international academic journals and in Norwegian language reports. SIFO-researchers are frequently present in public media.

SIFO has significant experiences with EU-projects, both as coordinator, WP-leader, partner and sub-contractor. Currently SIFO is coordinating two projects (PLateforms and Food2gather), and is partner in five (Strenght2Food, SafeConsumE, GoNano, PEN and Organic Plus). Since the early 2000s SIFO has coordinated 6 EU-projects, led WPs in 10 projects and been partner in additionally 7. Most of these projects have thematically centered on food production and consumption, energy use in households and sustainable consumption.

SIFOs RCN-project portfolio is even more variated, focusing on an even broad range of issues, like sustainable consumption, RRI-questions related to new technologies, socially inclusive/exclusive forms of consumption, and innovative forms of production/consumption.

In addition, SIFO is also doing research directly for the Ministry of Children’s affairs, where many recent assignments have addressed consumer policy issues and consumer challenges related to the digitalization of everyday life.

Take a peak at our ongoing research projects.