In a fast developing global knowledge economy our ability and readiness to invest in and capitalize on research and knowledge is an important factor for the competitiveness and wellbeing of our region.

The recent financial crisis and its aftermath underline this even further.

International collaboration in research, education and innovation is one of the key questions for all countries in the region. We need to be able to strengthen our knowledge base, to learn from each and to find common solutions to joint problems and challenges.

The Nordic-Baltic research cooperation has over the last years developed in a positive and constructive way.

The ambitions from all countries are now to further develop and enlarge the cooperation and build upon the experiences being made so far.

Against this background we are very pleased that the Nordic Council of Ministers and Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have a new agreement on research collaboration.

The rationale for enhanced research cooperation on equal footing between our eight countries is based on the clear ambition to strengthen the quality of research, to facilitate the production of new knowledge of relevance to our societies and to promote innovation.

The new agreement will when used, establish cooperation in research on equal footing with joint priorities and joint funding and we hope that this agreement in the years to come can contribute to strengthen the research collaboration between our countries and also in the wider Baltic Sea Area.

By joining forces on some of our global challenges like climate change, energy and environment and by establishing simple and transparent mechanisms for governance as well as a closer collaboration between our research funding organizations we believe that the Nordic and Baltic research collaboration can be built stronger and more relevant.

We are also pleased to see that new joint research programmes are being established together between NordForsk and funding institutions in the Baltic countries and that new networks between researchers in the eight countries continue to grow.

NordForsk and the research agencies of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will meet in near future to discuss a strengthened future collaboration.

The countries have agreed to further explore the possibilities to establish a knowledge Infrastructure for the 5th freedom in the Baltic Sea Area.

Read Agreed Minutes from the Nordic-Baltic meeting on education and research

Fredrik Melander
Phone +45 33 96 02 23
Email frm@norden.org