Promoting Nordic interests and contributing to the Nordic Vision

Nopef aims to contribute to the priorities of the Nordic Vision 2030 and to the specific goals of the business sector action plans. All projects funded by Nopef will contribute to concrete actions to realise the Nordic Vision. Furthermore, Nopef prioritises projects that involve the participation of Nordic partners and actors from two or more Nordic countries.

 

When evaluating project applications, significant emphasis is placed on the additionality Nopef can provide. This is followed up in annual customer surveys, which have been conducted since 2014, with the aim of measuring the results achieved through funded projects.

 

An important priority for 2022 was to further develop Nopef’s organisational collaborations, primarily through the implementation of pilot projects in connection with Nordic Innovation and Nordic Innovation Houses in Tokyo and Singapore. The project is coordinated in close connection with the Nordic Trade Promotion Organisations (TPOs). The activities and results of the pilot projects will be seen in 2023.

All 35 projects approved for financing in 2022 contribute to one or more of the initiatives in the business sector action plans.

 

In 2022, Nopef operations increased significantly in the area of circular economy and sustainable business models (20 projects). Nopef also granted funding for projects in the areas of sustainable construction and buildings (6 projects), sustainable ocean economy (3 projects), digitalisation, AI and data (3 projects), green transport (1 project), smart connectivity (1 project) and sustainable mineral production (1 project).

 

Many projects overlap with more than one of the programme initiatives for the Nordic Vision. In that case, the categorisation has been determined according to the area in which the clearest impacts are identified.

of projects

included partners

from multiple Nordic countries

Nopef strives for a reasonable distribution of projects between the Nordic countries. However, this may vary from year to year. To maintain a high level of project activity in all five Nordic countries, market scoping and research is carried out throughout the Nordic region on an ongoing basis. The projects approved in 2022 were distributed according to the country of origin of the main applicant company as follows: Denmark 34%, Finland 14%, Iceland 6%, Norway 11% and Sweden 34%.

Nopef gives special priority to projects that include participating co-applicants, actors and collaborators from multiple Nordic countries, which offer the potential for new Nordic collaborations, networks and solutions. Of the applications approved for funding in 2022, 57% of projects (20 projects) included the participation of partners from more than one Nordic country, an increase from 49% in the previous year. Therefore, a significant proportion of the projects funded by Nopef have the potential to create new Nordic networks and contribute to knowledge transfer between Nordic companies.