More Norwegian Companies can Receive Help from EU

The Norwegian Government has now given the "green light" for several EU programmes that are important for Norwegian business and industry: Horizon Europe, the Digital Europe Programme, the EU's Space Programme and COSME.

Written by Innovation Norway - translated to English by GCE Ocean Technology.

– For Norwegian companies all over the country, this is very good news. Norwegian participation in the EU's research and innovation programmes are important tools for internationalization and exports.

Norwegian companies will have access to networks, expertise and capital that lay the foundation for further growth, says Håkon Haugli, CEO of Innovation Norway.

Innovation Norway follows the development of the programs closely and sees that they respond well to the needs of the business community and to the major societal challenges we must solve in the future.

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High Ambitions for Horizon Europe

Horizon Europe replaces Horizon 2020, and covers the period 2021–2027. The total budget is 75.9 billion euros. The EU is now focusing more on innovation, and on small and medium-sized enterprises (SME's). Norwegian business has asserted itself well in Horizon 2020 and raised significant sums.

Over the past year, the development has been very positive for Norwegian companies with record high returns from, among others, the EU's EIC Accelerator.

In an announcement this summer, Norwegian companies were offered a total of NOK 500 million in grants and equity from EIC Accelerator. Only French companies brought in more than Norwegian ones.

– This makes me confident that Norwegian companies are well equipped to reach the competition in the future as well. Our role is, among other things, to mobilize Norwegian business and industry to participate in EU programs, and make them ready to compete against companies from all over Europe, says Haugli.

Innovation Norway, together with the Research Council of Norway and others, will contribute to these schemes interacting with national instruments to strengthen Norwegian business and industry's opportunities for internationalization and export.

Digitization, Scaling and Export

The other programmes the Norwegian Government has given the go-ahead for are the Digital Europe Programme, the Space Programme (Romprogrammet) and COSME.

Digital Europe emphasizes the use of new technology. The interest has been great among Norwegian actors and the programme will be able to contribute to increased digitalisation of Norwegian business and industry. COSME will contribute to scaling, and is of great interest to Norwegian SMEs and business clusters.

- Each of the programmes offers great opportunities for Norwegian business and industry, but combined we get a breadth of opportunities that exploit synergy effects. It is of great importance to companies and workplaces throughout the country. It is gratifying to see that the state budget takes into account synergies between the European programmes. Innovation Norway is happy for the trust we are shown and will do our part of the job. We look forward to the further dialogue with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Trade and Industry on Norway's ambitions and how they will be achieved, says Håkon Haugli.

Innovation Norway wants to:

• Ensure that European programmes contribute to the restructuring of Norwegian business and industry
• Contribute to Norwegian companies receiving support from the EU succeeding in a longer run of scaling and exporting
• Contribute to Norwegian companies, clusters and the public sector helping to solve societal challenges by participating in European cooperation projects