Estonian Minister of Public Administration Jaak Aab and State Secretary at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Audun Halvorsen on Thursday signed the Green ICT business development cooperation program, the total volume of which is 27 million euros.
“Norway’s grants help reduce the economic and social inequality between countries and strengthen bilateral relations. The entrepreneurs and organizations of both countries have a great role to play in achieving this objective,” Aab said in a press release. “I am glad to note that the cooperation between Estonia and Norway is very strong and thanks to previous programs, the entrepreneurs of the two countries have become good partners. With the help of the cooperation program signed today we can strengthen these ties even further.”
The total volume of the program is 27 million euros and it also includes Estonia’s co-financing, which is 25 percent. Of this, 18.5 million euros will go to open application rounds that will focus on industrial, IT and personal medicine product development. Altogether 5.3 million euros will be directed to the cyber security platform and projects of the Health Sense data storehouse as well as activities promoting the bilateral relations of Estonia and Norway.
The application rounds will be coordinated by Enterprise Estonia and activities will be carried out in cooperation with the Norwegian sister organization Innovation Norway. The application round for small grants preparing for main projects is to be opened in fall and the application round of main projects is to take place next year.
The general aims of the grants of the European Economic Area (EEA) and Norway are to reduce economic and social inequality in the EEA and strengthen bilateral relations between the donor and recipient countries. Grants are issued to 15 EU countries in Eastern, Central and Southern Europe. Norway is contributing altogether 97.7 percent of the sum total of grants, while Iceland contributes 1.6 percent and Liechtenstein 0.7 percent. As a rule, the rate of the grant is up to 85 percent, but may be up to 90 percent in the case of the civil society field or social partners.
The total volume of the Norwegian financial mechanism is 1.3 billion euros and that of the EEA financial mechanism is 1.5 billion euros. This makes the total contribution out to be 2.8 billion euros, which is 11.3 percent more than in the period 2009-2014. Of this, Estonia may receive 68 million euros of foreign aid.
The business development program is aimed to increase the competitiveness of Estonian companies and develop cooperation with Norwegian entrepreneurs, institutions and universities.
