More cash to Barents projects

The people-to-people contact is one of the cornerstones in the Barents regional cooperation, and each year the Norwegian Foreign Ministry grant money to strengthen the cross-border contacts in the north. It is the Norwegian Barents Secretariat that on behalf of the Ministry handles the applications to such projects.

- We are very satisfied with the grant we got for project cooperation, says head of the board in the secretariat Stig Olsen. One million NOK extra means a lot to the regional cooperation.

The secretariat grants approximately 200 Norwegian-Russian projects annually. The main focus areas for project grants are business and infrastructure, environment, sport, culture, indigenous peoples, health and education.

-The grant program is filling a need; there is a strong wish among people in Northern Norway and the Russian part of the Barents Region to meet across the borders and engage in joint project activities, says Stig Olsen.

Read more about the Barents Secretariat’s funding program.

The regional cross-border funding program has been in continuously change since its start-up in 1994. The changes keep in line with the demands of the current political priorities and changes in society.

- By monitoring and reviewing the changing surroundings and conditions, the Norwegian Barents Secretariat is constantly adjusting its financing program to make it suitable for the present and future cross-border co-operation in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region, head of the funding program Margrethe Alnes writes in the book “Connecting Barents People” published by the secretariat earlier this year.

More and more of the projects that get funding from the Norwegian Barents Secretariat are co-financed by Russian partners and Russian financial sources.