Norway is the main contributor to t he EEA grants, which are aimed at reducing social and economical disparities in Europe. These grants are given to individual projects aimed at perserving European cultural heritage, improving the enviroment and building sustainable development. There is also a scholarship fund for students that want to study in Norway.
For the 2004-2009 financing period, 50 individual projects in Greece have been granted economical support. In addition to being a financial contributer to all of the projects, Norway is also involved more directly in ten of them through Greek-Norwegian partnerships.
These are the Norwegian partners that will be involved in the implementation of approved projects for the financing period 2004-2009:
SINTEF, the largest independent research organization in Scandinavia (http://www.sintef.no) will partner:
a. with the South Aegean Region (http://www.notioaigaio.gov.gr) in a project that will establish a system for producing desalinated seawater on the islands of Leros, Tinos, Kythnos and Antiparos, with the overall objective of protecting freshwater reserves of the South Aegean Sea against over-exploitation.
b. with the Municipality of Fourni, Samos Island (http://www.geocities.com/fourni_korseon/) to help design and construct a wind-powered water desalination unit in the Fourni aiming at contributing to the sustainable use of natural resources and renewable energy.
The Norwegian Institute at Athens (http://www.norwinst.gr), with the Municipality of Ancient Olympia, (http://users.otenet.gr/~dolympia/), to contribute in the restoration of areas affected by forest fires and improve access to the Floka Theatre, with the overall objective of restoring the ecosystem..
T.O.I. the Norwegian Institute of Transport Economics (http://www.toi.no), with the Region of Central Macedonia (http://www.rcm.gr), to establish an urban mobility management and traffic control system that will improve the existing traffic services and will reduce air pollution in the Thessaloniki centre.
BIOFORSK: Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environment Research (http://www.bioforsk.no) with:
a. DEDISA, the Inter-municipal Enterprise for the Management of Solid Wastes of Chania, Crete (http://www.dedisa.gr), to improve the processing of organic waste and to increase the production of compost in Chania, thus maximizing the exploitation of organic waste as a natural resource.
b. the Municipal Enterprise for Water and Wastewater of Heraklion, Crete (http://www.deyah.gr), to improve fresh water management to ensure a sustainable supply of irrigation water to the Finikias area of the Heraklion Prefecture.
EURO-INNOVATION PARTNERS AS (http://www.euroinnovation.no), in a strategic cooperation agreement with The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (http://www.ks.no), with the Technical University of Crete (http://www.tuc.gr) to establish the Innovation Centre of Crete in Chania. The centre will support awareness raising and will research activities on issues related to the management of natural resources, in order to contribute to the promotion of innovative technologies and to the creation of spin-off companies in the agricultural sector.
The Norwegian Branch of the International Organization for Migration I.O.M., the leading international organization working with migrants and governments to provide humane responses to migration challenges (http://www.iom.no), with the Research Centre for Gender Equality (http://www.kethi.gr), to create a holistic and experiential methodology for linguistic and cultural support to vulnerable groups in Greece and its preliminary application in selected centres, as well as through distance learning, in order to improve social integration and decrease social exclusion for vulnerable groups in Greece.
N.T.N.U., the Norwegian University for Science and Technology (http://www.ntnu.no), with the University of Ioannina (http://www.cs.uoi.gr), through the Hercules system, will carry out research on children with chronic neurological disorders and will develop a bio-bank structure, electronic health record and web-based service for the follow-up and treatment of children with CND, aiming at improving the quality of and access to medical services for children with chronic neurological disorders in Greece.
Finally, FURGO-OCEANOR, the global provider of integrated real-time environmental monitoring and information systems for oceans, rivers and lakes, groundwater and soil (http://www.oceanor.no), as a subcontructor of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (http://www.hcmr.gr), through the Poseidon monitoring, forecasting and information system for the Greek Seas (http://www.poseidon.hcmr.gr), will generate real time scientific data relevant to the marine ecosystem, health and climatic change, to extend the knowledge of environmentally relevant Mediterranean deep sea properties of value to the international scientific community.
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The EEA grants:
- The ambition of the EEA and Norway Grants is to contribute to a more equal Europe. The three donor states, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway will make available €1.3 billion of project funding over five years to reduce social and economic disparities in Europe. Beneficiaries are organisations, NGOs, municipalities and businesses across Central and Southern Europe.
- The EEA and Norway Grants were established in conjunction with the enlargement of the European Union in 2004. Ten new member states joined not only the EU, but also the European Economic Area (EEA), which brings together the Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and the EU in the Internal Market. In 2007, Bulgaria and Romania also joined and became beneficiaries of EEA and Norway Grants. In addition to the new EU member states, Greece, Portugal and Spain also take part in the funding schemes.
- In the five-year period 2004-2009, €1.3 billion will be made available. A total €672 million is channeled through the EEA Grants, jointly set up by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, to the 12 countries that have joined the EU since 2004, as well as to Greece, Spain and Portugal. Norway contributes with around 97% of the funding.
Source: www.eeagrants.org |