Funding

Programme funding from EU and Norway
The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) can cover 65% of Swedish and Finnish costs. Swedish and Finnish partners need to finance 35% of their costs through own or other external sources.

The Norwegian IR-financing can cover 50% of the Norwegian costs but no more than 200 000 EUR (2 mill. NOK) per project. There can be exceptions to this if the project includes the whole programme area on the Norwegian side. This must be agreed with the Norwegian Managing Organisation before applying. Norwegian partners need to finance 50% of their project costs through own or other external sources.

The funding from ERDF and IR will be allocated by the Steering Committees (SCs) after an assessment procedure made by the Joint Secretariat (JS). After the SC-meetings the project will be given the formal decisions from the Managing Authority (MA) regarding the ERDF-support and from the Norwegian Managing Organization (NMO) regarding the IR-support.

The receiver of Norwegian IR-funding cannot be a Swedish or a Finnish organisation and the same goes for the EU-funding, the beneficiary cannot be a Norwegian organisation.

Please see the terms of references for the calls for applications to check if there are any limitations regarding applications. 

Co-financing in Norway, Sweden and Finland
Projects need to have own financing or apply for external co-financing from other sources corresponding to 35% of the EU-budget and 50% of the Norwegian budget. Funding from other external (public and/or private funding) sources must be applied directly from the intended co-financier. Likewise, the payment applications regarding that co-financing must be sent directly to respective co-financier.

Applicants must provide the planned amount of co-financing and the name of the intended co-financier in the application form for Aurora. 

If, for some reason, the external financiers will not approve the applied amount of co-funding, the partners must cover the lack of external funds with own financing or other funding. Always contact the joint secretariat whenever you find that the financial table should be revised. This can happen before or after the selection of the project by the steering committees.

NOTE! There is no ear-marked co-funding for Interreg projects in Norway and Sweden. For Finnish partners there is ear-marked co-funding to may be applied from the Regional council of Lapland. Co-financing from external financiers in Sweden and Norway should be applied for separately directly from the intended co-financier approximately at the same time as you apply for the EU-funding and Norwegian IR-funding. Finnish co-financing from the Regional council of Lapland may be applied for only after an approval of the EU-funding.

Co-financing Norway
Norwegian partners can usually find external co-financing from the different regions, municipalities or other organisations having sources to finance Interreg projects.

Norwegian regional co-funding can, as an example, be applied from Troms fylkeskommune via regionalforvaltning.no at the same time as the application of funding from the Aurora programme is submitted in Min ansökan. The funding from Norwegian regional co-financing can be no more than 20% of the total Norwegian budget. 

Co-financing Sweden
Swedish partners can usually find external co-financing from the different regions, municipalities or other organisations having sources to finance Interreg projects.

Swedish regional co-financing can, as an example, be applied from Region Norrbotten, Region Västerbotten and Region Västernorrland. Each of them has their own application and decision procedures. The applicant must be one of the Swedish partners and the budget in the application shall consist of the Swedish part of the budget. The regions prefer that potential beneficiaries take contact with officers working with project financing before an application is submitted. Applications are submitted to the regions via the system Min Ansökan.

Co-financing Finland
Finnish partners can usually find external co-financing from the different regions, municipalities or other organisations having sources to finance Interreg projects. There is also a possibility to apply from ear-marked Finnish national co-funding from the Regional Council of Lapland. You can apply for this financing when the project has received its grant decision from the Managing Authority regarding the EU-funding. You still need to provide the planned amount of co-financing from the Regional Council of Lapland already in the application to Interreg Aurora even if you cannot apply for the ear-marked Finnish national co-funding until after an approval regarding the EU-funding.

The funding from the Finnish national co-financing is a minimum of EUR 4 900 and a maximum of EUR 200 000 per project but no more than 70% of the total Finnish co-financing (when support is based on GBER rules no more than 15% of the total Finnish budget). If, for some reason, the Regional Council of Lapland cannot approve the applied amount from the ear-marked Finnish national co-funding, the partners must cover the lack of external funds with own financing or other financing. 

Note! If you intend to apply for co-financing from Lapin liitto for a small-scale project, the project budget for the Finnish partners needs to be at least 20 000 euro to reach the minimum level of co-financing possible to apply, which is 4 900 euros. For smaller budgets than 20 000 euro, please use own funding or another external financier than Lapin liitto to cover the 35% Finnish co-funding needed.