Nordplus is strong in 2024!

The result of the administration’s assessment is that 347, or 64% of the applications, are proposed for funding, making for a total amount of 12.560.623 € or 44% of the applied amount.

Nordplus results 2023 vs. 2024
	2023	2024	%
Higher	183	167	-8%
Junior	151	166	+9%
Adult	88	112	+26%
Horizontal	44	67	+53%
Nordic Languages	33	32	0%
Total:	499	544	+9%

Number of applications:

The increase in applications between years is a positive sign that the Nordplus plan is getting back on track after difficult years during the pandemic. The large increase in mobilities shows that the educational community in the Nordplus area is very interested in traveling and gaining knowledge and experience from neighbouring countries. It is also worth mentioning that Nordplus has never had so many applications with a partner from South Schleswig as this year.

Number of applications and grants applied for 2020-2024

The overall number of applications and the amount applied for has been as follows over the past five years:

The number of applications rose by 9% and the amount applied for rose by almost 5%. This is a good sign and shows that Nordplus beneficiaries have faith in the future of the Nordplus programme. There is an increase in applications for almost all the sub-programmes which is very good. Especially positive is to see the increase in the Nordplus Junior Programme in the last two years because they had been experiencing a downward trend in the previous years.  The only possible drawback to this increased interest in the Nordplus programme is that we do not have increased funding, so the success rate is of course lower than in the previous years.

Country participation

Submitted: 3.189 organizations

For more information on the individual applications, please visit The Nordplus Project Database

Total numbers proposed 2020-2024

2020:  2.785
2021:  1.906
2022:  2.382
2023:  2.729
2024:  2.291

A total of 3.119 organizations are involved in the applications submitted, which is a decrease of 3% compared to last year. When it comes to organizations funded, then the number 2.291 is 16% lower than the number funded in 2023.

Almost all the countries and territories are represented in all the programs and, as has been the case previously, the overall representation of the countries reflects the relative size of the country´s population. The good news is that South Schleswig is again represented in the Nordplus program. Three schools from the region are now being suggested for funding.

In this same context, the autonomous regions Åland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands appear over-represented as has also been the case in previous years.

The participation by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is collectively on par with the relative size of the Baltic population, and of the Nordic countries Iceland is clearly above par in relation to their relatively small population size. The overall country participation for “applied” bears the same pattern as the overall country participation for “proposed”.

  
Newcomers

Every year the administration examines the level of newcomers in the applications submitted. Participating institutions and organizations are considered “newcomers” if they have not participated in any application within the individual program during the past three years - in this case the period 2021-2024

For the four programs Nordplus Junior, Nordplus Adult, Nordplus Nordic Languages and Nordplus Horizontal, the level of newcomers varies between 47% and 72%, which is unusually high.

 
In 2024 the level of newcomers for the five programs is:

Nordplus Adult                               63%
Nordplus Higher Education          21%
Nordplus Horizontal                      67%
Nordplus Junior                             60%
Nordplus Nordic Languages          47%

The level of newcomers in all the sub-programs was high so it is positive to see that many organizations saw an opportunity to apply for Nordplus funding. Even Higher Education kept similar percentage of newcomers which is good due to the special nature of the program.

Highlight on socially sustainable future 2023 and 2024

In 2023 and 2024, Nordplus welcomed applications for the program having the theme “Enhancing Educational Cooperation for a Socially Sustainable Future”. The Nordplus highlight relates to all Nordplus programs and to all sectors within the field of education and training. The concept of „social sustainability “entails all aspects of the issue from, for example health equity and human rights to cultural competence and community resilience. Integrated with this theme is also the Nordic competitiveness based on knowledge, innovation, mobility, and digital integration. Nordplus Highlight specifies an up-to-date theme, which becomes the focus for a two-year period and relates to all Nordplus sub-programmes.

The aim of the highlight concept in Nordplus is to draw attention to the issue of this theme in education without giving formal priority to the applications addressing this. The highlight is presented on the Nordplus homepage www.nordplusonline.org and in the Nordplus handbook.

As part of the assessment procedure, evaluators are asked to identify all applications related to this year’s highlight. The topics of the applications show that the understanding and relevance of the social sustainability highlight is very broad. Thus, the topics range from support for dyslectic learners to inclusion. Nordplus received 110 applications under this theme in 2024 and the Nordplus Programme committee accepted to fund 71 such projects. In the Nordplus performance targets for 2023 and 2024, the aim was to have at least 120 approved applications within the social sustainable highlight for these two years. As the Program Committee accepted the current proposal notes, then 169 projects have been accepted and the target for 2023 -2024 period was met with large margins.

Factbox

Nordplus offers financial support to a variety of educational co-operations between partners in the area of lifelong learning between the eight participating countries and three autonomous regions in the Baltic and Nordic region.
The program supports networking, project collaboration and student/teacher mobility between the Baltic and Nordic countries.

The proposed program budget for 2024 is € 12.567.623 million. The budget result relates to the regular Nordplus budget and the allocation from returned and unused funding from previous years.
Participating countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Aaland Islands.  Beneficiaries from Syd-Schleswig can also participate in the program with a special funding from Denmark.

All countries and territories are well represented in the program.
The next deadline for submitting applications to the Nordplus programs is 1 February 2025.
Preparatory visits in Nordplus Junior, Nordplus Adult and Nordplus Nordic Languages can be applied for in the supplementary application round with a deadline on 1 October 2024.  Applicants can also apply for a study visit programme within the Nordplus Junior programme on that date. For further information please consult the individual homepages of the sub-programmes.

Interested in looking into different Nordplus projects? Then check out our Nordplus Data Base