Success story of Baltic Research: How €25 Million from EEA Mechanisms Transformed Regional Science
The Baltic Research Programme final conference, organised by the Research Council of Lithuania, was held in Vilnius on November 20th. It gathered together researchers from the participating countries - Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania and Norway - as well as the programme administrators to discuss the key aspects of the programme's implementation and cooperation and present the results achieved.
During the discussions, participants shared their insights on the benefits of the programme for the scientific community and society, cooperation between partners, best practices and project achievements. Views on how regional and bilateral cooperation could be further strengthened and improved were shared and the expectations for the next funding period of the programme were outlined.
Since 2019, three open calls for research proposals in each Baltic State were launched during the programme. All research projects under this programme are based on cooperation between research organisations in two or three Baltic States and at least one donor country (Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein).
In total, 28 international research projects were funded: 7 led by researchers from Estonian research institutions, 9 in Latvian, 12 in Lithuanian. A total of 11 Lithuanian research institutions participated in the projects. Research institutions in Estonia, Latvia, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein have carried out most projects with the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Vilnius University, Kaunas University of Technology and the Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry.
Around €25 million were allocated for the implementation of these international projects: €6 million for projects led by Estonian researchers, €7.5 million for Latvian and 11.5 million for Lithuanian. The duration of the projects was 3-4 years.
Regarding the thematic priorities, projects range from preventive and personalised medicine to cybersecurity. Conference participants had the opportunity to have a closer look at some of the tools or results of some projects, such as a newly developed and patented edible cheese coating; a drone used for data collection in wheat breeding studies; and samples collected for microplastic pollution studies in waters.
The Baltic Research Programme is a joint research programme of the three Baltic States and donor countries - Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein funded from Financial Mechanisms of the European Economic Area, which has been developed in response to the common societal and research challenges. The final conference evidenced that the program helped the Baltic countries to better establish themselves in the Baltic Sea region, the Baltic and Nordic research area, as well as at the European and international levels.
More information on the programme can be found here.
Videos of the projects led by Lithuanian researchers can be found here.
Photos by Paulius Gasiūnas can be found here.
The conference video will be available here in the beginning of December.
Last updated: 29-11-2024
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