Norway Grants

Norway provides funding for social and economic development projects in Central and Southern Europe both through the EEA Grants and the Norway Grants.

Key areas of support: The funding backs programmes and projects in priority areas agreed with each country. Green industry innovation, carbon capture and storage (CCS), research and scholarships, decent work and social dialogue, public health and gender equality, judicial capacity building and combating cross border crime all feature as key areas of support.

Beneficiary countries of the Norway Grants are: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

The funding is allocated between the countries based on their population and GDP per capita:

Norway Grants 2004-09

In the period 2004-09, Norway supported more than 1240 projects, programmes and funds through the EEA Grants and Norway Grants. Of these, around 430 projects were financed in full by the Norway Grants, some 200 included joint financing by the EEA Grants and the Norway Grants, and 600 projects were funded by the EEA Grants alone.

The largest share of support under the Norway Grants was awarded to Schengen and judiciary projects related to border security, police cooperation and strengthened judiciary. Another important field of intervention of the Norway Grants is regional and cross-border policy projects.

For the EEA and Norway Grants seen together, the joint portfolio of environment and sustainable development projects was the largest, with the European cultural heritage projects coming second. The support to the NGO sector was also an important area of intervention.