On 18th June, the Programme Monitoring Committee (PMC) met in Kirkwall, Orkney, Scotland. This meeting was organised as a back-to-back meeting with the Programme Planning Group, which is drafting the Operational Programme for the next period 2014-2020.

At this meeting, the PMC took decisions on preparatory projects targeting main projects in the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme (NPA) 2014-2020. The purpose of this call was to keep the programme's momentum and make a strong start in the next programme period.

The Secretariat received a total of 43 preparatory project proposals, which demonstrates that there are many new ideas for addressing the challenges and opportunities in the NPP area beyond 2013.

The assessment procedure involved the Programme Secretariat and Regional Advisory Groups in all 9 programme partner countries, before presenting the eligible applications to the PMC.

The PMC approved a total of 19 preparatory projects, which can be found in this overview of PMC preparatory project decisions (pdf). All approved preparatory projects are subject to conditions set by the PMC to ensure they will have a strong match with EU 2020 priorities and emerging themes for the new programme.

Please note that this was the last round of PMC project decisions for the NPP 2007-2013.

Next steps

The Secretariat will work closely together with the approved preparatory projects to ensure that they develop strong main project applications. They will join the Secretariat on 13th-14th November in Iceland for a main project development clinic. Lead Partners will be expected to bring their project teams along.

In February 2014, a How to Apply Seminar will be organised for all interested project idea holders wishing to apply to the NPA 2014-2020. 

Please keep an eye on the programme website to stay up-to-date about upcoming events.