Funding scheme for cooperation between Nordic and Baltic civil servants is open until 31 October 2022 

Time’s running out: The Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme is set to allocate ‘school money’ once again! “Nordic solutions to education issues have given us ideas on how we can widen our bottlenecks, like supporting schools whose students are faring more poorly and issuing training permits,” explained Maie Kitsing, an adviser to the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research who visited Denmark within the framework of the project. 
Read more about her experience.

The Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Public Administration is now open for applications from civil servants and other staff in the public sector. The autumn deadline for submitting applications is 31 October 2022.

A successful project application should involve partners from at least three countries: Nordic applicants should visit a minimum of two Baltic countries, while Baltic applicants should visit partners in at least two Nordic countries.

Why apply?

• You and your colleagues in Nordic and Baltic countries have ideas, plans and experiences worth discovering and discussing with partners.
• Applying and reporting is easy and user friendly – all can be done online at NB8-Grants.

Results from spring 2022

23 applications from the Nordic-Baltic region were approved for grants with a total budget of 179 152 € in spring 2022. A total number of 163 civil servants are participating in the projects granted by the mobility programme in spring 2022.

Success stories and examples

Examples of the previous projects funded by mobility programme can be checked out at Success stories - NB8-Grants (nb8grants.org)

A fine example of a successful project co-financed by the mobility programme in 2021 is a project initiated by Vänersborg Kommun in Sweden Intelligent Nordic-Baltic Ecosystems (INBE), recently accomplished in cooperation with Daugavpils in Latvia and Tartu in Estonia. The aim of the project  is boosting the public administration authorities of the participating cities to become the engines for the recovery of their local economy and strengthen citizen participation and wellbeing. Vänersborg Municipality set an goal to get an insight into best practices in the Baltics, specifically in the field of e-governance and using digital tools for citizens participation in public governance, more exactly regarding participative budgeting, digital voting, providing safe telecommunication solutions and eSignature services, collecting data via positioning of mobile phones for planning transport and other public services. Meetings with partners were held in Latvia : DELEGATION FROM SWEDEN VISITED DAUGAVPILS WITHIN NORDIC MOBILITY PROJECT and a seminar User-friendly digital services for the public was arranged 24 August in Tartu: Stefan Konjevic on LinkedIn: #digital #digitaltransformation #project. Project leader Stefan Konjevic, Development Manager at Vänersborg Kommun in Sweden: ”The project has enabled us to explore how our partners in Estonia and Latvia work to digitalize their public services and sets a good base for future cooperation with them. The exchange of experiences and challenges has been very fruitful and inspiring for the Swedish side to continue developing new work methods.”

 Applying is easy

• The electronic application system at www.nb8grants.org is open from 15 August 2022.
• Please read the guidelines carefully and start looking for project partners in good time.
• Register or log in if you are already a user of the mobility programme and start filling in the application - please note that you can fill in the application step by step up to the deadline.
• Do not forget to submit your application before the deadline - 31 October 2022 !
• More information: Mobility Programme for Public Administration - norden.ee

Contacts

Madis Kanarbik, Programme Coordinator
Nordic Council of Ministers' Office in Estonia
Phone +372 5046570
E-mail: public.administration@norden.ee
Languages: English, Swedish, Estonian

About the Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Public Administration

The programme offers grants for mobility and networking, the annual budget of the mobility programme, app. 250 000 EUR, is financed by all NB8 countries – Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. The purpose of the programme is to promote and strengthen cooperation, exchange of knowledge, and networking between public administration structures on all administrative levels in the Nordic-Baltic Region. The programme aims to facilitate the harmonization of more efficient working methods in the public sector. The overall goal is to increase the global competitive power of the region. The mobility programme has supported a total number of ca 700 projects, more than 4000 employees of the public sector have been participating in these projects.