On October 24, the Annual EEA Grants Meeting took place at the Bissaya Barreto Foundation, organized by the National Focal Point. The event featured the Secretary of State for Planning and Regional Development, Hélder Reis; the Norwegian Ambassador to Lisbon, Hanne Brusletto; the Portuguese Ambassador to Oslo, Pedro Pessoa e Costa; and the representative of Iceland’s Permanent Delegation, Una Jóhannsdóttir. Representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Portugal and Norway, as well as the Financial Mechanism Office, were also present, along with the Programme Operators.
The meeting aimed to assess the implementation of various Programs and the Bilateral Relations Fund, as well as to evaluate the results achieved.
The agenda also included visits to projects funded under the Blue Growth, Environment, Culture, and Work-life Balance Programs in central Portugal. The first project visited was the "Evaluative study on the impact of measures applied to offenders," promoted by Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra (CES), which provided insights into the impact of measures applied to aggressors, particularly restraining measures and sentencing within the context of domestic violence.
On October 25, the delegation travelled to Góis, Figueira da Foz, and Nazaré to visit additional projects. In Góis, they visited the pre-defined project “Management of the Rio Ceira river basin adapted to a changing climate,” funded under the Environment Programme, which focuses on improving resilience and responsiveness to climate change, including the implementation of a monitoring system to mitigate the effects of extreme events, such as floods and droughts.
Under the Culture Programme, the project visited was “Ciência Viva Salt Farm- Cooperation, safeguard and innovation”, at the Sal Museum in Figueira da Foz, which aims to conserve, rehabilitate, and revitalize the coastal cultural heritage associated with the Salina of the Corredor da Cobra.
The day concluded in Nazaré with a visit to “AmpliAqua,” a project funded under the Blue Growth Programme, dedicated to promoting innovation and sustainability in land-based aquaculture.
