BONUS EEIG became independent

7 January 2008 

BONUS Baltic Organisations Network for Funding Science EEIG (BONUS EEIG) separated from the Academy of Finland in December 2007. This new legal entity was founded by the key research funding organisations in the eight Baltic Sea EU Members States (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden). Russia will join the EEIG later as an associated member.

The premises of the BONUS EEIG are located in the same building as the Academy, but with their own entrance. Currently the office staff comprises five people: an executive director, a financial manager, two science advisers and a secretary.

The aim of the BONUS EEIG is to manage the Joint Baltic Sea Research Programme, funded jointly by the national funding organisations and the European Commission. The first call of the programme, with total funding of some 23 million euros, was launched in autumn 2007. The EU part of this call is comes from the ERA-NET Plus funding scheme.

After the selection of the projects to be funded, BONUS EEIG has an important task to coordinate the funded research. The specific goal of the programme is to contribute to creating the scientific basis for sustainable development of the Baltic Sea and for the better management of Baltic Sea environmental issues.

The longer term goal is that the programme will be implemented under article 169 of the EC Treaty. Plans are that the initiative will be presented to the European Parliament and Council co-decision in September 2008.

More information:

Kaisa Kononen, PhD
Executive Director
Baltic Organisations Network for Funding Science EEIG
Hämeentie 33, 00500 Helsinki, Finland
email: kaisa.kononen(at)bonuseeig.fi
tel. +358 40 58 111 89
fax +358 9 47 800 044

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