‘Europe is lagging behind its global competitors. Through the EEA and Norway Grants, we are helping to stimulate job creation in Europe through innovation, research and education. Norwegian researchers and companies are also involved in many of the projects,’ said Minister of EEA and EU Affairs Vidar Helgesen.
Norway is contributing to future growth and development in Europe through the EEA and Norway Grants. The annual report is now out, and it shows that research and innovation cooperation is an important aspect of the more than 4 000 projects that have been contracted.
A total of EUR 317 million of the EEA and Norway Grants is being invested within this sector.
Download: Annual report for the EEA and Norway Grants
At the present time, 142 joint research projects are being carried out through cooperation between Norwegian researchers and researchers from Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Estonia. Some of these projects aim to develop:
- new technology which will enable solar cells to collect more efficiently both sunlight and light coming from artificial sources and convert them to electricity (University of Oslo in cooperation with the University of Bucharest (Romania) among others)
- new cancer therapies with reduced side effects (University of Wroclaw (Poland) and Oslo University Hospital)
- new coding and decoding techniques for more efficient electronic data transmission and storage (University of Tartu (Estonia) and the University of Bergen)
The report also highlights Norway’s support for European cooperation in the justice sector and for migration measures, with EUR 145 million allocated to programmes in these areas in 10 partner countries.
Funds from the EEA and Norway Grants have been designated to strengthen the judicial systems in partner countries, to improve access to the courts and the efficiency of the justice systems, to improve prison conditions in line with European standards and to strengthen the administration of asylum cases and the reception of migrants in Greece. So far, more than 4 300 legal professionals have received training to make the judicial systems more efficient and to reduce case-processing times.
More results and projects are described in the annual report, which is available electronically. Printed copies are available on request from the .
Our programmes and their projects are set to run until 2017. As most of the projects are still in the implementation phase, measurable results are expected in 2016 and 2017.
For the current period, EUR 1.8 billion has been set aside under the EEA and Norway Grants. Funding is channelled through 150 programmes in 16 partner countries. The objectives of the EEA and Norway Grants are to reduce economic and social disparities in Europe and to strengthen relations between Norway and the partner countries.