The
Royal Frederick University in
Christiania was established in 1811. The idea of a learned society in Christiania surfaced for the first time in 1841. The city of
Trondhjem had no university, but had a learned society, the
Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, established in 1760. The purpose of a learned society in Christiania was to support scientific studies and aid publication of academic papers. The idea of the
Humboldt-inspired university, where independent research stood strong, had overtaken the instrumental view of a university as primarily a means to produce civil servants. The city already had societies for specific professions, for instance the
Norwegian Medical Society, which was founded in 1833. However, these societies were open to both academics within medicine as well as physicians outside of academia. The learned society would be open to employed academics only, but from all academic branches. The academy was founded, and inaugurated on 3 May 1857 under the name . "Christiania" was later changed to "Kristiania". The name was adopted in the early twentieth century, and from 1924 "i Kristiania" was dropped, when
Oslo voted to return the name to its original Norwegian name. These foundations lost some of their importance after
World War II. However, an entirely new source of funding was later found, as
Otto Lous Mohr suggested to use surplus from a state-owned, national lottery. The establishment of
Norsk Tipping was laid down in 1946, and founded in 1947. The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters wished to administer this income through a council of its own, but the
Government of Norway refused and created the research council
NAVF (, the Norwegian Council of General Research). The academy could merely suggest representatives for this council. Ever since then, the state-driven research councils have been more important than the academy, economically. ==Organisation==