Norway participates actively in health cooperation with Russia through Barents cooperation, the Northern Dimension and the Arctic Council. The grant scheme, which is now to be evaluated, is administered by the Ministry of Health and Care Services with funds from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Through this scheme, support is provided for professional projects with a Norwegian and Russian partner. The main goal is to strengthen health cooperation between professional environments in Norway and Russia and to contribute to better public health.
The evaluation is led by senior researcher Aadne Aasland at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR). NIBR will collaborate with NORCE Research AS and Luzin Institute for Economic Studies in Apatity in the Murmansk region. The team has extensive experience in conducting evaluations of Norwegian-Russian cooperation programs. NIBR carried out a similar evaluation of health cooperation in 2007. All the team's researchers are currently engaged in a major research project specifically on cooperation with Russia in the field of health and welfare over the past 20 years.
As a basis for the evaluation, the researchers will conduct applications, self-evaluations, and other relevant documents related to health cooperation between Norway and Russia, an electronic survey aimed at project managers for projects that have received support in the two countries, and interviews with selected project managers and other key players in health cooperation, on the Norwegian and Russian sides.
