General information

Objectives

The main objectives of the EEA and Norway Grants are: to contribute to the reduction of economic and social disparities in the European Economic Area and strengthening the bilateral relations between the donor and the beneficiary states.

Beneficiary states

The recipients of EEA and Norway Grants are 16 EU countries: 12 countries that joined the common market in 2004 and 2007, as well as Spain, Portugal, Greece and Croatia.

Allocation

The total amount of the second edition of the Norway and EEA Grants amounts to EUR 1.798 billion. Allocation for Poland amounts to EUR 578.1 million, including management costs incurred by the Donors and the Polish side.

Recipients of support

Generally, applicants may be private or public, commercial or non-commercial, and non-governmental organizations established as legal entities in Poland, as well as intergovernmental organizations operating in Poland. For each programme a list of eligible applicants will be established.

Programmes (Theme areas) 

Within the framework of the EEA and Norway Grants several programmes, i.e. theme areas, were indentified. Within a particular programmes calls for projects are to be organised.

When it comes to support areas, many theme areas of the first edition of the Norway and EEA Grants were maintained. First of all, the following shall be listed: protection of the environment (including renewable energy), cultural heritage, health, research and scholarships. Also there will be implemented a programme on Schengen area and home affairs, including the prison system and preventing violence. As in the first edition, much emphasis was placed on strengthening civil society. Also completely new topics were indentified, such as decent work and tripartite dialogue, as well as cooperation between self-governments aiming at regional development.

The programmes are implemented by so called Operators, i.e. institutions specialized in a particular field, such as in the case of health - Ministry of Health. Operators are responsible among others for preparation of a programme, announcement of call for proposals, selection of projects, projects’ monitoring, as well as promotion of the programme. Some programmes are implemented in partnerships with Donors.

Presentation of programmes, i.e. objectives, themes, applicants, grant amount etc., can be found under the section Priority sectors.   

Calls for proposals

The selection of projects to a large extent is based on call for proposals announced by the Operators under the various programmes. In addition there are implemented so-called pre-defined projects, i.e. projects which due to their special importance, are identified without any call for proposals.
 

The second edition of the Norway and EEA Grants put great emphasis on strengthening bilateral co-operation with the Donor States such as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway. As a result of this approach several actions were undertaken i.e.:

• establishment of the so-called affiliate Donor Partnership Programmes,
• establishment of bilateral co-operation funds at national and programme level,
• promoting partnership co-operation at project level.

Partnership at project level

As a general rule, there is no obligation to carry out projects in collaboration with partners from the Donor States. Only some programmes involve implementation of bilateral projects. These include the following:

• Polish-Norwegian Research Programme,
• Promoting cultural and artistic diversity, 
• most measures under the Scholarship and Training Fund.

In order to develop partnerships within each programme the Bilateral Cooperation Fund at the programme level was established. The fund is intended to facilitate such actions as: searching partners from the Donor States (before or during the preparation of an application), development of partnerships, networking, exchange, sharing and transfer of knowledge, technology, experience and best practices between the beneficiaries and the Donor’s entities. The amount of the fund is about 1.5 per cent of the eligible costs of the programme.

Donor Partnership Programmes

In Poland, there are 7 Donor Partnership Programmes. This formula means that these programmes were developed in collaboration with partner institutions from Donor States. Usually the partner is responsible for professional support for the Programme Operator, facilitating partnerships and promoting the programme in Donor’s countries.

The following programmes are implemented in collaboration with partner institutions from Donor States

• Promotion of Diversity in Culture and Arts within European Cultural Heritage
  Operator: Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
  Partner: Arts Council Norway with support from the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage
  
  
• Norwegian-Polish Research Programme
  Operator: National Centre for Research and Development
  Partner: Research Council of Norway
  
  
• Scholarship and Training Fund
  Operator: Foundation for the Development of the Education System
  Partners:
• Norwegian Centre for Cooperation in Education SIU from Norway,
• Icelandic Centre for Research RANNIS from Iceland,
• National Agency for International Affairs AIBA from Liechtenstein.
  
  
• Strengthen environmental monitoring and inspection
  Operator: Ministry of the Environment with support from the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management
  Partner: Climate and Pollution Agency in Norway
  
  
• Judicial capacity-building and cooperation/Improvement of the efficiency of justice
  Operator: Ministry of Justice
  Partner: Norwegian National Courts Administration
  
  
• Support for the Prison Service including non-custodial sanctions
  Operator: Central Board of the Prison Service
  Partner: Norwegian Correctional Services
  
  
• Reducing social inequalities in health
  Operator: Ministry of Health
  Partner: Norwegian Directorate of Health

Bilateral Fund at national level

Bilateral Fund at national level is a flexible source of funding for initiatives that contribute to the strengthening bilateral relations with the Donor States. The allocation of the Fund amounts 0.5 percent of the total allocation for Poland, i.e. EUR 2,890,500.