By supporting educational cooperation, the EEA and Norway Grants work to increase the quality and relevance of education at all levels throughout Europe. The Grants allow your institution to form close partnerships with Norwegian entities.
Please note that this information is meant for potential Programme Promoters in search of a Norwegian partner.
The education programmes/components in the EEA and Norway Grants fund a wide range of activities in the field of education including:
While the Grants do support mobility of students, individual students cannot apply directly for funding meaning that the initial application for funding must come from the institutions. Students seeking funding are encouraged to contact their home institutions to see whether they can participate in an EEA and Norway Grants programme.
Institution and organisation in one of the ten countries with an education programme/component may be eligible to apply for funding. The exact eligibility criteria are set out in the call text posted by the programme operators in each country. You may only apply for funding in your national country.
In each beneficiary country there is a national programme operator (PO) that handles theadministration, calls for applications etc. If you have ideas for projects, you should check with yournational program operator to see if there are any active open calls or planned open calls for the future. These are the countries that still have planned calls within education:
For a full overview of active calls across all sectors funded by the Grants visit the EEA and Norway Grants webpage.
A partner from one or more of the donor countries will normally be required or at least desired in the project. It is essential that you find a partner early in the process and to involve these as much as possible in planning process. Even if there is no current call in your country, you could start planning for a later call, thus having more time to find partners and to develop a good project.
One of the two main objectives of the EEA and Norway Grant is to increase cooperation and relations between the beneficiary and donor countries. Partnerships are therefore a fundamental part of the Grants and it offers a unique opportunity to tackle common challenges in the education sector. Here are some other reasons to secure a partner:
For inspiration you may want to check out the EEA and Norway Grants webpage and the webpage of the POs for previous projects examples.
Finding a partner in Norway can be challenging and you should therefore prepare any inquiry thoroughly. Here are some ways to start your partner search:
Keep in mind that when contacting potential partners, you should be as specific and detailed as you can, e.g. what kind of activity do you envision, what is the subject area of interest, initial ideas, timeframe and so on.
The Norwegian wage and cost levels are very high, but you should not see this as a problem when choosing a Norwegian partner. While it may seem like an unreasonable requirement to cover wages according to Norwegian standards this is taken into account in the allocation of the Grant. Savings can be made by organising events in the beneficiary a country as long as the activity is reasonable in relation to the project.
Accounting needs to follow the relevant law and national accounting practices for the country in which the activity is taking place. For example, a Norwegian entity with offices in Norway follows the Norwegian accounting practices. As a project promoter you may however ask your partner to provide proof of expenditure in line with the beneficiary country accounting rules. Make sure to agree on these terms in the documentation needed in the partnership agreement.
Here are some other tips on what to consider when budgeting with your partner:
It is important to be thorough in the development of a partnership agreement which regulates the cooperation between all parties involved in the project. A good partnership agreement should explicitly describe your and your partner’s contributions to the project. The agreement forms a solid foundation for your cooperation and will help you avoid potential obstacles.
When developing the partnership contract with your partner be sure to include the following:
You may also want to consult the Bilateral Guideline from the EEA and Norway Grants.
The EEA and Norway Grants are funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The Grants have two objectives – to contribute to a more equal Europe, both socially and economically – and to strengthen the relations between Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, in 15 beneficiary countries in Europe where the gross national income (GNI) is 90 % of the EU average or lower.
The EEA and Norway Grants are allocated to five key sectors that are crucial for development in the beneficiary country and where there is an interest in cooperation with Norway:
The concrete content and composition of each programme will vary between the different beneficiary countries. The formal conditions for projects may also vary somewhat from country to country according to national regulations, although the basic elements will be similar across all countries. The general description of the programme composition for each country is described in the Memorandum of Understanding and the Programme Agreements.
The grant scheme consists of two financial mechanisms. One is funded solely by Norway (the Norway Grants), and the other (the EEA Grants) is funded by Norway together with Iceland and Liechtenstein. The two mechanisms are generally referred to as the EEA and Norway Grants. For Norwegian partnerships it does not matter which of the two funding mechanisms the programme/project gets its funds from.
More information about the Grants can be found on the Norwegian Governement's webpage.