Organisation

Nordregio is recognised and respected as a leading Nordic research institute within the broad research fields of regional development, policy and planning.

Organisation

Nordregio has an international research environment with over 50 staff members from around the world. We are a flat organisation and work in project teams of junior and senior researchers along with a number of specialists. Nordregio is involved in a variety of projects running in parallel – usually 50 or more commitments at any given time – and we produce research papers and other policy relevant publications under all our fields of studies.

Board of Directors

The Nordregio Board of Directors is responsible for long-term strategic planning. It consists of one member from each of the five Nordic states (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) and the three autonomous territories (the Faroe Islands, Greenland and the Åland Islands), as well as a member elected by the staff of Nordregio. The board is appointed by the Nordic Council of Ministers.

Statutes, Grant letter and the Nordregio Strategy

Nordregio’s current statutes were passed on 1 August 2024. Article 1 states that Nordregio shall enhance Nordic co-operation on regional development, planning and policy; contribute to sustainable regional development (both urban and rural), in the Nordic countries; and maintain and develop its role as a leading European research centre, facilitating knowledge transfer between the Nordics and the EU. As of 2015, Nordregio receives an annual Grant letter from the Nordic Council of Ministers, which defines the expected performance goals and budget. This also reflects Nordregio’s role in the implementation of the new Nordic Co-operation Programme for Regional Development and Planning 2020-2021 (Norwegian).

In May 2021, Nordregio Strategy 2021-2024 was published. It includes our main research themes, methods and competencies as well as our mission and more concrete objectives for 2021-2024.

Finance

Nordregio’s yearly turnover is around 80 million SEK. The annual funding from the Nordic Council of Ministers (NCM) covers ca 20% of the turnover. The balance comes from contract work for the different political sectors at NCM, national and regional authorities and competitive bids on national and European research programmes such as EU Horizon Europe and the ESPON Programme.

History

Nordregio was established by the Nordic Council of Ministers on 1 July 1997. However, Nordregio is built on over 40 years of Nordic collaboration as Nordregio took over a range of tasks that had previously been assigned to the three separate Nordic institutions Nordplan (1968), NordREFO (1967) and NOGRAN (1979).

Fredrik Sjögren acts as Data Protection Officer.