The 4th Regional Funds Annual Seminar gathered attendees representing projects implemented under the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Youth Employment and Fund for Regional Cooperation, and FMO and FO representatives. We additionally hosted the youth representatives of projects under the Fund for Youth Employment (see separate article on YouthTOK).
The main idea for this year’s event was to put together the efforts of the two regional funds, focusing on the topics related to the celebrations of the European Year of Youth. With this in mind, we planned the first day with sessions concentrating on current youth issues and presenting various approaches from the project promoters, from both funds. The key notes were given by Lars Børresen, the recently appointed Senior Adviser at, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Grethe Haugøy, former Senior Sector Officer at FMO and currently policy expert on lifelong learning, employment and inclusion. Both sessions, “Youth opportunities for engagement towards sustainable future” and “NEETs and young professional: challenges of the labour market” gathered speakers representing projects’ perspectives and sparked further conversations,ideas for possible collaborationand experience exchange.
The second day of the seminar was made available only for the in-person attendees and was dedicated to measuring results. The workshop delivered by Karolina Wrona was very enthusiastically welcomed by the attendees, while the presentations on result management delivered by the project promoters inspired discussions continued though the farewell lunch.
EFTA House hosted 59 representatives Lead, Beneficiary and Expertise partners. Further 82 participated online. This was the first in years in-person meeting and for many of the project representatives a first ever opportunity to connect with other project promoters, exchange experience and network beyond project partnerships and even beyond the funds. The FO organisers noted the importance of facilitating such contacts and will strive to provide more such opportunities in 2023, especially when panning for the final annual seminar.
On behalf of the FO team, I wish to thank our project representatives for their participation, both online and in person, for the great energy during the meeting, exciting discussions and inspiring ideas. Our exceptionally big thank you goes to the speakers: Aggeliki Demertzi, Anastasia Vlachou, Elisa Lironi, Francisco Simões, Gustavs Upmanis, Ierotheos Zacharias, Indrė Laučienė, Ingrida Jotkaitė, Kaja Cunk, Lars Alrø Olesen, Enikő Jarmaczki, Lorena Butinar, Luca Koltai, Maritsa Kissamitaki and Radka Muchova.
Małgorzata Nowak, Fund Manager
