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 project seeks to promote collaboration amongst micro-abattoirs in the NORA area as part of an effort to establish the Faroe Islands’ first approved, year-round micro-abattoir. The hope is that collaboration can lead to partnerships that can further the understanding in the Faroe Islands of best practices for the abattoir itself, as well as operations and methods.
NORA funding in 2023: DKK 20,000
Brennevinsgrove og Faer Isle Distillery er begge to relativt nyopstartede firmaer, der begge arbejdet med produktion af brændevin. Faer Isle har sat sig som hovedmål at producere whisky, men på den lange vej dertil produceres også andre typer brændevin. Brennevinsgrova har især specialiseret sig i gin. Begge har tanker om at kombinere destilleriet med turisme for at skaffe et bedre grundlag under virksomhederne.
Projektet er et forprojekt, og partnerne forventer at projektet skal afdække om hvorvidt der er muligheder for at skabe grundlag for et samarbejde om destilleri og turisme i et hovedprojekt
NORA-støtte 2023 DKK 60.000
Dulse is a type of algae found throughout the waters of the North Atlantic. The project will involve growing and harvesting dulse, and, based on the outcomes, the project group will draw up publicly available information about its sustainable use. Large-scale dulse farming is currently carried out in the Faroe Islands and in Norway using comparable methods. In Greenland and Iceland, smaller start-up facilities are being established in order determine the potential for large and small-scale dulse-farming operations. The goal is to establish dulse as a regional food resource that can be used by restaurants and in processed foods, or exported as a food ingredient.
NORA funding in 2023: DKK 500,000
Projektets formål er at hjælpe virksomheder på Færøerne og Grønland med at vælge de mest bæredygtige emballagemuligheder for deres geografiske kontekst og med begrænset affaldshåndteringsinfrastruktur. Flere dimensioner af bæredygtighed (f.eks. lukket kredsløbspotentiale og CO2-fodaftryk) vil blive overvejet for en række produkter, både inden for det eksisterende system til indsamling og behandling af emballageaffald og i et fremtidigt scenarie, hvor det eksisterende system er blevet udviklet.
NORA-støtte 2023 DKK 240.000
Projektet skal etablere et bæredygtigt arktisk ungdomsfællesskab, der fremmer tværkulturel forståelse og samarbejde blandt unge i Norge, Island, Grønland og Færøerne. Gennem en række online og personlige aktiviteter har projektet til formål at fremme iværksætteri, kulturel udveksling og social samhørighed. Projektet vil blive faciliteret af ICE-fællesskabet og skal skabe en
platform for ungdomsledede iværksætterinitiativer i Arktis. Platformen vil gøre det muligt for unge iværksættere at udvikle deres kompetencer, dele erfaringer og udfordringer og indgå i meningsfulde samtaler relateret til nordatlantisk/arktisk iværksætteri.
NORA-støtte 2023 DKK 400.000
Projektet vil uddanne og bevidstgøre unge i Nordatlanten omkring havpattedyr i fortid, nutid og fremtid. Gennem film og undervisningsindhold ønsker NAMMCO at fremhæve både de menneskelige og forretningsmæssige muligheder inden for sæl og hvalfangst. Denne ansøgning er til projektets udviklingsfase, hvor det endelige projekt vil blive forsket i og udviklet til fremtidig ansøgning og medfinansiering.
NORA-støtte 2023 DKK 60.000
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
