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North Sea

Programme description

Main objectives

Since the start of the first North Sea Region Programme, cooperation in the region has matured and intensified. With each programming period it has been possible to raise ambitions for the impact and durability of the funded projects. The new North Sea Region Programme continues this progression in 2014-2020.

The overall objective of the programme is to support development and foster sustained economic growth across the North Sea Region. The programme will help enterprises, institutions, public administrations, NGOs and others to pool their expertise, share their experience and cooperate to develop realistic solutions to problems shared by organisations across the region.

Funding priorities

The Programme will focus on four main priorities:

  • Priority 1: Thinking Growth – Supporting growth in the North Sea Region economies by promoting business investment in research and innovation, and developing links and synergies between enterprises, research and development centres and the higher education sector. This will include in particular: promoting investments in product and service development, technology transfer, social innovation, eco-innovation, public service applications, demand stimulation, networking, clusters and open innovation through smart specialization, and supporting technological and applied research, pilot lines, early product validation actions, advanced manufacturing capabilities and first production, in particular in key enabling technologies and diffusion of general purpose technologies.
  • Priority 2: Eco-innovation – Stimulating the green economy by supporting industrial transition towards a resource efficient economy, promoting green growth, eco-innovation and environmental performance management in the public and private sectors.
  • Priority 3: Sustainable North Sea Region – Protecting against climate change and preserving the environment by supporting investment for adaptation to climate change, including ecosystem-based approaches and protecting and restoring biodiversity and soil and promoting ecosystem services, including through NATURA 2000 and green infrastructure.
  • Priority 4: Promoting green transport and mobility by developing and improving environmentally‐friendly (including low noise) and low‐carbon transport systems, including inland waterways and maritime transport, ports, multimodal links and airport infrastructure in order to promote sustainable regional and local mobility.

Expected impacts

  • Develop new or improved knowledge partnerships between businesses, knowledge institutions, public administrations and end users with a view to long-term cooperation on developing products and services. Enhance regional innovation support capacity to increase long-term innovation levels and support smart specialization strategies. Stimulate the public sector to generate innovation demand and innovative solutions for improving public service delivery.
  • Promote the development and adoption of products, services and processes to accelerate greening of the North Sea Region economy. Stimulate the adoption of new products, services and processes to reduce the environmental footprint of regions around the North Sea.
  • Demonstrate new and/ or improved methods for improving the climate resilience of target sites. Develop new methods for the long-term sustainable management of North Sea ecosystems.
  • Develop demonstrations of innovative and/or improved transport and logistics solutions with potential to move large volumes of freight away from long-distance road transportation. Stimulate the take-up and application of green transport solutions for regional freight and personal transport.

Funds

Regional Development Fund (ERDF): 167.253.971,00 €

Thematic priorities

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Financial information

Total OP budget: 328.773.520,00 €

Total EU contribution: 167.253.971,00 €

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