In the period 2004-09, more than 1 in 5 supported projects were partnership projects between entities such as municipalities, research institutions, NGOs and universities in the beneficiary states and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The majority of these projects were found within the fields of academic research, environmental protection and sustainable development. In addition to 285 partnership projects among the individual projects, hundreds of partnership projects were supported under the many funds and programmes managed at national level.

Facilitating partnerships: Seed money and bilateral funds

Lessons learned from the 2004-09 funding period have been taken into account in the new regulatory framework by introducing various measures to encourage bilateral cooperation at programme and project level.

The lack of seed money for developing partnership was previously identified as an impediment. Within all beneficiary states, bilateral funds will now be set aside both at the national level and within all programmes for networking and exchange and/or for the establishment and development of partnerships and the preparation of applications for donor partnership projects.

* In each beneficiary state, at least 0.5% of the country's total allocation will be set aside for a bilateral fund to facilitate outreach and networking between programme operators and donor programme partners, or potential project partners from the donor states. These bilateral funds will be available also before the programmes have been fully developed and approved by the foreign ministries of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

* Within each programme, at least 1.5% of the available funding will be earmarked for the search for project partners from the donor states, the development of bilateral partnerships and the preparation of applications for donor partnership projects. The funding will also be used to support additional networking and exchange with entities in the donor states for approved projects.

* The programme operators may also spend some funds on activities that may strengthen their cooperation with similar entities in the donor states.

Simplified procedures

The Regulations contains provisions on what a partnership agreement should look like and what kind of expenditures that are eligible, as well as a simplification of the procedures for justifying incurred expenditure and calculation of indirect costs for donor state project partners.