We are continuing the survey launched in August 2019, to understand the level of awareness and interest across the business sector in the Beneficiary States for the opportunities by the EEA & Norway grants.
We are pleased to publish the October 2019 update of the preliminary survey results.
General conclusions at this stage. Most respondents from the Beneficiary States have no direct experience with the EEA & Norway grants, although the majority are familiar or have experience with EU funding schemes on their local markets. The EEA & Norway grants seem to be a funding mechanism that all our respondents are interested in exploring. However, less than half of them have checked the funding conditions so far. The lack of trading or commercial history with organisations from the Donor States (for most respondents) might be a key barrier here, even though this funding mechanism offers the perfect context to overcome this barrier. All respondents are willing to engage with organisations from the Donor States either by establishing a partnership, testing their products/ services or transfer know-how and expertise from those markets.
General awareness regarding the EEA & Norway grants. 96% of the respondents (businesses based in the Beneficiary States) have no direct experience with the EEA & Norway grants. While 40% are not familiar at all, 33% of the respondents became familiar with this funding mechanism recently and only 4% have had previous experience with these grants.
General understanding of international funding landscape. The respondents are most familiar/ experienced with the EU funding schemes available on their local markets (78%). Despite having experience with EU funding schemes directly managed by the European Commission (33%), as well as with other local state-aid funding schemes (30%), the respondents are least experienced with the EEA&Norway grants.
Engagement experience with the Donor States (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein). Somewhat in line with the very low level of direct experience with the funding scheme, 98% of respondents have no direct trading or commercial history with organisations from the Donor States, have never had a contact with these. 4% however did establish contacts with organisations from the Donor States.
General interest to apply for grants- funding. It can be assumed that 100% of the respondents would be interested to apply for funding via the EEA&Norway grants, but only 20% have actually checked the funding conditions. 36% have specifically indicated their interest to explore the funding conditions under this funding mechanism.
Type of partnership sought with organisations from the Donor States. Nearly half of the respondents (49%) are interested to visit the Donor States markets to establish future partnerships, while 58% would aim to test their products and services in Norway and/or Iceland. 33% would like to transfer know-how and expertise from these markets, while only 18% would actually want to purchase technology and products from these markets.
Our survey will be on-going for a few more months as we hope to gain a better understanding of this marketspace. We appreciate the participation of our survey respondents very much to date as all the information we collect is of great value to us and other stakeholders involved in this marketspace.
To share YOUR experience and views on the EEA & Norway grants, please complete the survey by clicking on the button below:
