A new Project Desk Officer has been appointed at the Joint Secretariat for 11 months, Ms. Saija Tikkanen. She will be taking over some tasks in connection with a maternity leave.

Saija started her work at the Secretariat on 15th of January 2015. Her main tasks are acting as a desk officer for a number of projects funded by the NPP 2007-2013 and NPA 2014-2020.

Saija has previously worked as EU co-ordinator at University of Oulu in Finland. At the University, she was advising the employees about EU structural funding issues for the past five years. Earlier, she has work with  EU structural funding related tasks at other universities and national regional authorities in Finland.

In her own words: "I am happy to join the Northern Periphery and Arctic team! It is a great opportunity for me to participate in the transnational project world and learn how European cooperation works at this level. I am interested to see and learn how the new programme starts and what kind of projects the Arctic theme will bring to the area.

I am looking forward to an interesting period in the NPA world!"

We welcome Saija into the NPA family!