Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the autonomous territories Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland co-operate together in the official Nordic cooperation within the Nordic Council of Ministers.
Nordic co-operation within research and innovation is done in particular by the two agencies of the Nordic Council of Ministers:
- Nordic Innovation Center, NICE - Initiates and funds projects that encourage innovation.
- NordForsk - Responsible for co-operation in research and research training
An important role of the Nordic societies is to encourage and facilitate co-operation between national R & D funding agencies to cooperate and thereby create greater momentum and avoid duplication. Thereby, the Nordic societies help to strengthen the Nordic region as a prominent research and innovation area.
Currently, the following Nordic collaboration in research and innovation are particularly relevant:
- Top Research Initiative - Nordic focus on climate, environment and energy
- NORIA-net Citizens Services - Research about e-citizens
- NORIA-net Living Labs - Nordic-Baltic cooperation in IT
- NORDITE - Nordic research in ICT