It gives me great pleasure to present NORA’s annual report for 2023. My first year as director has been exciting and eventful, and we made significant progress in our efforts to strengthen co-operation and sustainability in the North Atlantic. As always, NORA’s focus has been on supporting innovative projects, promoting innovation and economic development and strengthening relationships throughout the region..
One of the highlights of the year was our hugely successful Unesco conference. Held in Sisimiut, Greenland, the conference brought together experts, decision-makers and stakeholders from across the NORA area, as well as the wider Nordic region and its neighbours to the west, to discuss and promote sustainable and place-based solutions. The conference focused on using Unesco designations to catalyse sustainable development in the Arctic, and it resulted in specific recommendations and partnerships that we are convinced will have a long-lasting impact on the region.
In 2023, we also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Orkney Island Council. The agreement is an important milestone in our efforts to strengthen ties between the NORA area and the Orkney Islands, and to promote the exchange of knowledge and resources and the development of joint projects. We are looking forward to seeing this collaboration bear fruit, and we will continue to prioritise our relationship with our friends in Scotland and the United Kingdom’s North Atlantic islands.
Our presence at the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík provided us with a window to promote ourselves, and the exhibition we produced in 2021 to highlight NORA’s success stories again showed its value. The exhibition was an important platform for presenting our work and the results NORA-funded projects have achieved, as well as for creating new partnerships. The exhibition itself received a lot of praise for the good impression it made on the more than 2,000 conference attendees.
In 2023, NORA provided funding to a wide range of projects, all of which contribute to our overarching goal of creating a dynamic and sustainable North Atlantic region, in line with the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Vision 2030. The 22 projects we funded in 2023 covered a wide range of topics. Most, however, fell within our focus areas: maritime resources, tourism, digital innovation and youth development, In all, we made 5.271 million Danish kroner in grants.
We firmly believe that our collective efforts will continue to have an impact. We remain committed to working closely with our partners to tackle the common challenges we face and create a future that is both sustainable and dynamic for the people of the North Atlantic.
In 2021, NORA celebrated its 25th anniversary with an exhibition at the North Atlantic House in Copenhagen. The exhibition showcased examples of many of the projects that NORA had supported over the years. In the 2023 edition of the Annual Report, we highlight two of these projects. A more sustainable shrimp fishery was the goal of the project "Efficient Shrimp Sorting" which NORA supported in 2006. VR, or virtual reality, was the focus of the project "GeoVirtual Reality" which NORA supported from 2016 to 2018. The focus was to communicate the geology of the NORA countries, where one could explore the differences and similarities between the countries. With VR technology, one could travel across the region and, most notably, back in time to experience how it all began.
One of NORA’s core activities is to make grants to cooperation projects that seek to further socio-economic development in the North Atlantic region. NORA supports organisations and firms that contribute to innovation, concept development and increased activity in the region.
All of the projects that receive NORA funding make a contribution to addressing the issues facing the region and are relevant to NORA’s main objective: to create a strong and dynamic North Atlantic that is notable for its healthy and sustainable economies. As the North Atlantic connects NORA’s constituents, many of the projects receiving funding naturally deal with maritime resources. Other NORA-funded projects contribute to creating and developing new directions and opportunities. In 2023, NORA-funded projects dealt with maritime activities, sustainable tourism, IT, transport, youth and agriculture.
NORA funded 22 projects in 2023.
NORA’s project portfolio currently includes 36 projects. Some projects recently received funding; others are close to completion.
The goal of the project is to establish a sustainable group that promotes cross-cultural understanding and co-operation amongst young people in northern Norway, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The project will hold on-line and in-person meetings to promote entrepreneurialism, cultural exchange and social cohesion. The project will be facilitated by the ICE group and will create a platform for youth-led entrepreneurship activities in the Arctic region. The platform will help young entrepreneurs to develop their ideas, share experiences and take part in meaningful discussions about entrepreneurship in the North Atlantic and Arctic.
NORA funding in 2023: DKK 400.000
Many coastal communities in the North Atlantic have trouble attracting people to work in the fishing industry. The shortage of workers is found throughout the industry, but the need is greatest amongst coastal fishing vessels less than 15 meters in length. A project completed by Norway’s Trøndelag County addressed this specific issue in a North Atlantic context and looked at possible collaborative solutions.
NORA funding in 2023: DKK 150,000
Prosjektet skal samle et pan-nordisk team av kunstnere og materialutviklere til å lage neste generasjons ansiktsmasker. Fiskeskinn fra Nordsjøen og virusavstøtende teknologi skal brukes til masken. Masken er designet for å adressere den nye forurensningen som kommer fra bruken av ansiktsmasker under pandemien. Tanken er å erstatte engangsmaskene i plastikk med kunstige økovennlige masker som har nordisk design i sentrum.
NORA-støtte 2023 DKK 150.000
Inspired by the success of Scotland’s Unesco trail, the project seeks to determine the feasibility of establishing a Unesco trail in the North Atlantic. By working with Unesco sites in the region, the project aims to create a shared narrative, map relevant sites and propose an organisational framework. Project elements such as promoting sustainable development and linking Unesco sites to the internet contribute to a strengthened understanding of Unesco’s importance, improve programme quality and position Unesco sites as hubs for sustainable development. The feasibility study is in line with NORA’s goal of promoting co-operation and regional development.
NORA funding in 2023: DKK 499,500
The primary aim of the project is to come up with new and improved saltfish products through information exchange and process and product development amongst the 16 participants from the Nordic region. Saltfish is an important industry in the Nordic region, and the project seeks to address the declining share of North Atlantic saltfish in its traditional markets, particularly southern Europe. The project will include several national and three international workshops that will allow project participants to share information and grow their networks.
NORA funding in 2023: DKK 250,000
The project will establish a sustainable-fishing network that will strengthen collaboration across national borders in the Nordic region in order to identify, solve and communicate shared challenges. As part of the project, a joint strategy and an action plan will be developed. The aim is to become a consulting party to the MSC and serve as a mouthpiece for sustainable fishing in the North Atlantic in the hopes that taking a collective position will allow the countries in the region to influence the organisation’s decision-making.
NORA funding in 2023: DKK 250,000
The Nordic Council of Ministers is obliged to live up to the Nordic prime ministers’ vision for the Nordic region by 2030. Investments in three strategic areas will contribute to the Nordic region becoming the world’s most sustainable and integrated region by 2030.
To achieve the vision, the Nordic Council of Ministers is investing in:
As part of the efforts to achieve Vision 2030, NORA has been included in the regional policy initiatives and is focusing on five of the 12 objectives that the ministers for Nordic co-operation have identified.
NORA’s tasks primarily consist of the following:
No decisions may be made prior to reviews and negotiations. The principle of consensus should be applied in negotiations whenever possible. For decisions of principle to be approved, none of the delegations may oppose the decision.
Niklas Bak Hansen
Committee Member and Member of the Working Group
Karin Pedersen Thorsen
Committee Member
Sarah Woodall
Committee Member
Stig Olsen
Committee Leader 2024 and Member of the Working Group
Lena Merete Søderholm
Committee Member
Lisbeth Nylund
Committee Member
Kristján Þ. Halldórsson
Committee Leader 2023 and Member of the Working Group,
Ásborg Ósk Arnþórsdóttir
Committee Member
Frosti Gíslason
Committee Member
Jákup Mørkøre
Committee Member and Member of the Working Group
Alex N. Vilhelm
Committee Member
Súsanna E. Sørensen
Committee Member
