SI Baltic Sea Neighbourhood Programme

What is the SI Baltic Sea Neighbourhood Programme?

The SI Baltic Sea Neighbourhood Programme is a programme which provides funding to projects in which Swedish organisations work on cross-border challenges and opportunities together with organisations from the EU countries around the Baltic Sea and countries in the EU’s Eastern Partnership.

There are two different types of grants for cooperation in the Baltic Sea region: seed funding and funding for cooperation projects.

Seed funding

Seed funding aims to lay the foundation for cooperation. For example, projects can use seed funding to:

• Prepare applications for new funding (mainly EU).
• Develop concepts and identify partners for future cooperation.

Grant amount: Minimum SEK 100,000 up to SEK 400,000
Project duration: 6 – 15 months

Cooperation projects

Funding for cooperation projects aims to deepen and further develop cooperation. For example, you can use the funding to:

• Build networks and platforms.
• Develop and test models and methods.
• Provide input to policy and strategy.
• Build/spread knowledge and competence.

These are larger projects that will contribute to in-depth, long-term cooperation.

Grant amount: Minimum SEK 500, 000 up to SEK 1,000,000
Project duration: 12 – 24 months

Who can apply?

• A legal entity based in Sweden must be the main applicant and responsible for the project’s implementation and reporting.
• A partnership must include legal entities in at least three of the core countries of the programme (including Swedish main applicant).
• Main applicants and partner organisations can, for example, consist of:
  • Non-governmental organisations, foundations
  • Local authorities
  • Regional authorities
  • Government agencies
  • Higher education institutions and research institutes
  • Intergovernmental organisations
  • Business companies
  • Business and trade organisations

Which countries are included in the programme?

13 countries from the Baltic Sea region and the EU’s Eastern Partnership are part of the SI Baltic Sea Neighbourhood Programme. The following countries can be part of the partnership:

• Core countries within the EU: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland
• Core countries outside the EU: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine
• Additional countries: Denmark, Finland and Germany

More information on requirements on the country composition is described in the instruction which will be announced during an open call.

About the upcoming call

SI aims to open a call for the grant types seed funding and cooperation projects within the SI Baltic Sea Neighbourhood Programme in December 2024 closing 4 March 2025. You can find instructions and application materials below once the call is open.