These days are busy at Nordic Innovation as we are wrapping up the final year of the Nordic Co-operation Program for Business and Innovation Policy 2018-2021 and are simultaneously starting new programs corresponding to the eight initiatives 2021-2024 launched by the Nordic ministers for trade and industry in September 2020. Svein Berg, Managing Director at Nordic Innovation, shares what the new programs mean for the organisation and what is next for Nordic Innovation in the coming four years.
How have you been working with the eight initiatives?
There has been a political anchoring process in the Nordic countries and now we are starting to involve the stakeholders. We are actively seeking interesting intersections to multiply effects of these eight programs and involving our stakeholders, explains Svein Berg.
Are the stakeholders already involved?
Nordic Innovation acts as an intermediator with the task to support ecosystems and enable cross border collaboration for sustainable growth and to promote entrepreneurship, innovation, and competitiveness of Nordic business. We aim to inspire society at large, and to ensure that it has the necessary legitimacy, acceptance, and relevance. The program development and implementation process included multiple relevant actors, from business environments and policy makers in the co-design, co-implementation, and co-evaluation of the activities. We already have a close network and collaboration with stakeholders and are always seeking new dialogs.
How can Nordic companies and organisations take part in the programs?
We are bringing together and supporting Nordic actors to enable collaborations that spark innovation. We can help connect Nordic companies and organisations to Nordic ecosystems.
By actively taking part in our activities and sharing their insights, companies and organisations can participate in experimentation, knowledge sharing, value chain collaboration and co-creation of Nordic solutions, says Berg.
The Managing Director also adds that Nordic Innovation will inform about upcoming activities and available funding opportunities on our website and in other channels according to requirements for public financing tools and procurement – and that we will be starting new activities in all eight initiatives continually in the period 2021-2024.
How will the eight programs benefit the Nordic region?
Our task at Nordic Innovation is to facilitate effective collaboration between national authorities and business environments and implement these plans to demonstrate the targets for the Nordic prime ministers’ Vision 2030. Through these eight programs we can strengthen and align framework conditions to support sustainable economic growth in the Nordic region, Berg concludes.
Financing collaboration 2021-2024
In this period all Nordic Innovation funding will support Nordic collaboration activities that are linked to the eight programs and support the Vision 2030 targets. Nordic Innovation will continually inform about funding opportunities and other means of support.
There is no process for open applications during this period, but we are always interested in opening dialogs and welcome information about initiatives and ideas that contribute to Nordic added value.
