Our programme explainer – newsletters to make this funding scheme easier for you to digest.
This is series 8 on bilateral partners in business projects.

The type of partnerships supported in the Business Development and Innovation Croatia programme are the following:

• Donor Partnership Project: cooperation between a Croatian applicant and at least one legal entity in Norway.
• Partnership Project: cooperation between a Croatian applicant and at least one legal entity in Croatia.

While it is not mandatory to have Partners in the projects, Partnership Projects are encouraged and Donor Partnership Projects specifically will be awarded additional points during the assessment.

Additional requisites are:

• Eligible partners are private or public entity, commercial or non-commercial, registered as legal person in the Norway or in Croatia;
• All entities shall be independent of each other and perform substantial and relevant tasks in the completion of the project;
• Partners should be actively involved in, and effectively contributing to, the implementation of the project, and should share with the applicant a common goal to be realized through the implementation of the project;
• The simple provision of services does not qualify as a Partnership Project.

This is consistent with one of the key ambitions of this funding mechanism that is to encourage and create bilateral cooperation between organisations from the Beneficiary State (Croatia) and organisations from Donor State (Norway).  

However, most of the Beneficiary States of the EEA&Norway grants have a rather limited history of cooperation and trade with these Donor States. This means, it might seem a bit difficult to liaise with potential partners.

So how can this gap be bridged? 

First of all, we will always suggest to look at the free available resources offered directly by the EEA&Norway grants to support bilateral partnership.

At Winnovart, we are committed to helping you bridge this gap, as well as to accelerate the process of finding a suitable partner for your project. The need for accelerating this process can often be a challenge when preparing a funding application before a submission deadline. Check out our dedicated service for bilateral partnership development. 

What type of projects do organisations from the Donor States are interested to get involved in?

Check out the results of our awareness survey across businesses in Norway and Iceland. 

We are partnering with selected organisations from the EEA&Norway grants Donor States (Norway and Iceland) comprising innovation champions, technical and/ or business development experts with relevant experience in the context of the funding scheme. See how Empower, Recycls or Scan-Water-Technology can help your project.

More names in our Winnovart Explore – Partner series.   

While partnerships with organisations from the Donor States are not mandatory, they are strongly encouraged. They increase the success chances through additional score that can be received in the assessment phase.

Statistics from the past show that approx. 60% of successful projects under the EEA&Norway grants involved partners from the Donor States. 

Deadline for applications: 27 January 2022.

At Winnovart, it is part of our mission to bridge the gap between stakeholders of the grants-based funding market-space in Europe. We are a leading independent consultancy specialised in EEA & Norway grants for private sector companies. In the past years we have raised over EUR 40 million in funding under this mechanism for clients from various industries across the CEE space. Many projects have involved bilateral partners from the Donor States (Norway and Iceland). We have a very good presence in the Donor States, with the capacity to support in the development of bilateral partnerships, one of the key ambitions of the EEA & Norway grants.

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