NEBEX – Network of border expertise
Funded by Euregio Karelia Neighbourhood Programme 2001-2006

Objective of the project

The project aimed at creating a network of border expertise and a related know-how centre in the region of North Karelia and the Republic of Karelia and to increase high quality information production and education.

Main activities

• Compiling reports on the regional effects of neighbourhood cooperation, work force mobility and development of education and making several project applications to various parties, • Seeking partners for project suggestions received from the City of Petrozavodsk and the Petrozavodsk University; cooperation with the Russians in preparing project applications, organising seminars, writing articles to information publications and acquiring web page material.

Achievements

The foundation of the know-how network centre was unsuccessful, as the application submitted to a know-how centre programme coordinated by the Ministry of the Interior was rejected. However, the project increased the network of know-how of the border experts by organising various seminars and discussion events about the educational market and employment issues within the field of neighbourhood cooperation. The project produced various reports related to the regional effects of neighbourhood cooperation, work force mobility and development of education and made several project applications to various parties. A preliminary survey about educational cooperation between North Karelian education institutes was conducted to support the project application for the Cross-Border Co-operation Small Project Facility -programme. Three additional surveys were conducted about the education motives of the Russian degree students in the North Karelia catchment, their experiences on education, integration to the society and future plans, apprenticeship education and the willingness of university students of a business economics institute in St Petersburg to complete their extension and post-graduate studies in Finland. The Russian partner of the project, the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, did a survey on a Karelian model of cross-border cooperation, which was published in Finnish and Russian. The surveys were presented, among others, in a symposium entitled Euroopan Unionin rajalla (At the Border of the European Union) in Koli. The project was looking for partners for project suggestions from the Town of Petrozavodsk and the Petrozavodsk University and cooperated with the Russians in preparing the project applications, organising seminars, writing articles to information publications and acquiring web page material. The project worked in cooperation with other projects through, among others, steering group work. On the initiative of the project, a work group on the social development of border regions and interaction of cultures was established in the Joensuu University, which laid down the aims and development strategies of the faculties and departments for Russian cooperation. The project participated in drafting initiatives on the decentralisation of the regional unit of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and locating the information centre of the Northern Dimension in East Finland.