Miljøeffektiv teknologi eller miljøteknologi i de ... - Ecoinnovation

gies: Towards Green Growth? Here an estimate of the number of patents
is used to say something about strength.
It should, on this basis, be recommended that each of the Nordic
countries should try to calculate the number of patents as an indicator of
the international strength.
Grants/subsidies
Grant funds are probably the most central instrument that all countries
use to promote the development or implementation of eco-efficient
technology. In the questions to the countries there has been considerable
focus on the amount of grant funds, grant areas, program management,
performance, etc. It turns out that when a funding package is approved
and money allocated to a grant administrator, this decision is
rarely followed up with demands on management, reporting, evaluation,
etc. If this is systematically implemented anyway, one must conclude
that it is automatically implied by the general administration of the responsible
institution. It’s certainly not something institutions inform in
general to the public.
There were at project start an expectation that it was possible to establish
lists of areas and sizes of grant funds, results, etc. It turns out quickly
that the countries are not particularly good at creating this overview. So
it’s not something that is particularly accessible, and this project has not
succeeded to find material, where grant funds size etc. is described in
great detail. Each country section shows figures from the strategies and
announcements of future actions, but it has not been possible to create
this picture back in time. This is unfortunate and should be done better in
the future if more information on grant funds can be provided.
Are there sufficient grant funds? Sometimes a report states that there
are sufficient funds, other times there are statements about the lack of
funds. There are funds available in all Nordic countries. They could certainly
be larger, when most programs show that companies apply for
more funds than are available. On the other side, it is clear that you
should not just offer funds in a very easy way. It should not be too easy
to get the funds, because the consequence might very well be lack of
results. Generally, one might say that it should be pretty easy to allocate
more grant funds, as they usually are small amounts in overall size compared
to many other areas of state expenditure.
Grant funds may go to a number of purposes: research, development
and demonstration are mentioned frequently as three goals in a chain of
development. Such a chain of development is often more detailed. There is
no doubt that research frequently has received the most funds. The EU has
also had certain reluctance towards funding for demonstration projects
because it is considered to be too close to the general understanding of
state aid. This seems fortunately to belong to the past in that the EUcommission
also has accepted that there must be enough financial resources
to demonstrate technologies in the real world and not only on the
Miljøeffektiv teknologi eller miljøteknologi i de nordiske lande 217