NEWS ROOM
Highlights from 2011
One of the highlights of BONUS during 2011 was the completion of the
strategic research agenda for the years 2011-2017 – a process that involved
over 800 stakeholders in all nine countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. The
agenda will be the basis for the policy-driven research to be funded by BONUS
during the coming years.
2011 also provided an opportunity to harvest the yield from BONUS’s first seeding – the call of 2007: The 16 BONUS+ projects are ending within the coming week and the scientific results that the projects have created are impressive. Equally impressive is the active and highly qualified stakeholder communication by the projects. Besides the BONUS Forum 2011, the BONUS+ projects were presented to the wide Baltic Sea community in the fora of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and Baltic Development Forum in Gdansk in October 2011. Also, the European community was informed about the BONUS+ results in a dedicated seminar in Brussels the following month.
BONUS is a pioneer in integrating research into a multinational programme. Unexpected challenges were encountered when creating mechanisms to integrate funding from eight different countries and the European Community. This has now led to the unfortunate delay in the planned opening of the call in December 2011. On behalf of the whole BONUS management, however, it is safe to say that we are committed to ensure that the postponement of the call is shortly lived and that the call can be opened soon allowing the new projects to start their research in early 2013.
The coming year will focus on the planned new calls. Also, 2012 will be
the time to initiate a new round of consultations for revising and updating the
strategic research agenda.
Executive Director, BONUS
