The Fund for Regional Cooperation was launched in 2018 to help address common European challenges. Unlike other programmes supported by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, the Fund for Regional Cooperation focuses on transnational cooperation. Below you will find presentations of projects that involve Slovenian project partners.
The Fund for Regional Cooperation is a novelty of the EEA and Norway Grants in the present period. The Fund supports transnational and regional cross-border cooperation of EEA and Norway Grants beneficiary countries, focusing on common European challenges that can only be solved through shared efforts. Since European challenges are not confined by national borders, ten neighbouring countries have been invited to take part in the cooperation. The Fund for Regional Cooperation focuses on the priority areas of the EEA and Norway Grants.
The Fund Operator assisting the Financial Mechanism Office in implementing the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation is a consortium consisting of Ecorys Polska and JCP Italy.
Projects
The projects supported by the Fund for Regional Development are regional cross-border or transnational and involve partners and activities in at least three different countries. Funding is allocated to support inclusive dialogue and the strengthening of cross-border and transnational networks, capacity building, knowledge sharing and policy exchange to accelerate innovation; the development of sustainable transnational cooperation structures between the business sector, public sector, civil sector and academia; and engagements contributing to and enhancing effectiveness and efficiency in policy development and responses to common European challenges.
Under the first call for proposals more than 700 applications were submitted, covering all 23 areas. 4 out of the 20 projects selected involve Slovenian project partners.
BeeConSel
EUR 1.8 million| 5 partners | 39 months (1 October 2020 – 31 December 2023)
The project Joint Effort for Honey Bee Conservation and Selection – BeeConSel aims to introduce honey bee mating control that will be adequately adjusted to the local environments and conditions. Introducing mating control is a key step in the conservation of the local subspecies of honey bees. One of the key objectives of the project is to raise awareness of the relevance of introducing mating control in breeding programmes among beekeepers and other partner countries’ stakeholders. Besides the Agricultural Institute of Slovenia that acts as Project Promoter, the following entities also participate in the project: Norwegian Beekeepers Association, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Company for Applied Research and Permanent Education in Agriculture (CARPEA) from North Macedonia and the Centre for applied life sciences Healthy food chain Ltd. for research and development (CALS) from Osijek, Croatia.
CODE Europe
EUR 1.3 million | 11 partners | 36 months (1 January 2021 – 31 December 2023)
The project Co-Deciding Europe: Civic Tech for Good Governance and Active Citizenship! (CODE Europe) aims to develop a pilot transnational e-participation method of crowdsourcing of legislation on the topic of air quality in five beneficiary countries. The consortium will develop a universally applicable methodology to allow objective comparison of the results of e-participation projects across time and geographical space and use it for evaluating the crowdsourcing pilots. The project involves partners from Hungary, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Latvia, Bulgaria, Estonia and Iceland as well as the Institute for Electronic Participation (INePA) from Slovenia.
HOPE
EUR 1.1 million EUR | 9 partners | 36 months (1 July 2020 – 30 June 2023)
The project HOPE – Holistic Radicalisation Prevention Initiative strives to create a network, i.e. a European learning hub on radicalisation, that supports continuous training and knowledge sharing in the Balkan, Southern and Eastern European countries. The network consists of training and research organisations, academies, prison and probation systems to intervene on radicalisation prevention and disengagement as well as to improve the transition process between prison and/or probation systems and the community for those at risk of radicalisation or who have been radicalised. The project involves 9 partners from Portugal, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, Spain, Norway and the Probation Administration from Slovenia.
Uncorking wine and cider typicality
EUR 1.5 million | 9 partners | 36 months (October 2020 – September 2023)
The project Uncorking rural heritage: indigenous production of fermented beverages for local and environmental sustainability addresses the issues of inhabitants emigrating from rural areas, brain drain and under-development of the local economy, all characteristic for rural areas of Central and Eastern Europe. The project aims to promote the development of rural areas by improving common research capacity and knowledge dissemination applied to the “terroir” approach for wine and cider production in the selected areas in Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia and Norway. The University of Nova Gorica is the lead partner with the Municipality of Ajdovščina acting as project partner.
For more information, please visit the website dedicated to the Fund for Regional Development, the website of the Fund Operator Ecorys Polska and the website of the Norway and EEA Grants.
Please address any questions you might have regarding the Fund for Regional Cooperation to Fund Operator Ecorys Polska at eeagrants@ecorys.com.