Full Membership in NordForsk Obliges

The Faroese Minister of Research, Djóni Nolsøe Joensen, is confident that full membership of the Nordic research funding programme NordForsk opens up new possibilites for the Faroe Islands but also implies new requirements.

- This means that we are perceived to be more on an equal footing with the other countries. Although it obliges and requires us to make the necessary effort, it is only once when we have full membership that we get the full benefit of Nordic co-operation. This makes us feel a greater sense of ownership because we gain greater influence, he says in an interview with nordforsk.org.

Nordforsk.org has made a reportage from The Faroe Islands which includes interviews with Djóni Nolsøe Joensen, Minister of Research, Annika Sølvará, Director of Research Council Faroe Islands, and Martin Tvede Zachariassen, Rector of the University of the Faroe Islands.

In the coalition agreement between NordForsk and the Faroe Islands it is stated that research must be prioritised and, in the long term, given an even higher priority. At the moment, the budget is DKK 300,000.

- Measured in terms of population, we are on a par with the other Nordic countries. But of course we must contribute more money in the long term, and we would like to increase it to around DKK 1.5 million, Djóni Nolsøe Joensen says.

The Faroe Islands are also part of the European research programme Horizon Europe and as the minister sees it one programme does not include the other.

- The Nordic countries are closer to each other than the rest of Europe. Time will tell whether we should perhaps focus more on Nordic than European research, but right now we want to be involved on both fronts and learn from it, he says.

The reportage on nordforsk.org can be seen here.