Deadline: 1-Sep-25
The Norec Grant for Work Exchange Cooperation gives young professionals the chance to gain international experience and expertise about sustainable development.
Norec aims for a wide variety of work exchange projects, considering diversity in themes, competencies, locations, participants, and partnerships.
Norec supports the goals of Norwegian development policy to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The development policy is designed to promote economic growth, democracy, human rights, good governance, and measures to help people escape poverty permanently.
Intended purpose of the grant
This grant aims to build mutual trust and strong global partnerships for sustainable development.
It focuses on enabling institutional development and innovative solutions driven by young professionals as holders of knowledge, skills and attitudes. It is based on Norec’s vision and theory of change. It reflects Norec’s two main principles:
Reciprocity: Everyone has valuable knowledge to share. All partners in a work exchange learn from each other and benefit from each other’s expertise.
Youth Participation: Young people make up a large part of the world’s population but often lack opportunities and ability to influence decisions. Norec supports work exchanges for young people aged 18-35, helping them gain experience and contribute to their communities.
Specifically, Norec aims to:
-Build knowledge, skills, and attitudes that promote sustainable development
-Improve organisational readiness to manage diversity and create inclusive workplaces
-Strengthening strategic and institutional learning, innovation and development across the partnerships and within the organisations
-Creating or supporting global networks, communities of practice, and partnerships
-Support for mutual learning, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 17
-Increasing ownership, knowledge, and awareness of projects among staff across partner organisations
-Encourage innovative solutions and improve the quality of services provided by grant recipients
-Promote positive impact for target groups and local communities
What you can apply for?
The Norec grant primarily supports costs for the mutual work exchange of young professionals or volunteers aged 18-35.
Phase 1: Concept Development
New partnerships can apply for funding to hold a partner meeting to further develop their project idea. You can apply for up to 150,000 NOK or the equivalent amount in USD based on the exchange rate at the time of application. Norec covers per diem, accommodation, necessary visas and vaccines, and travel costs.
Phase 2: Project Implementation
-Partnerships that have completed Phase 1 or those that currently or recently received a project grant from Norec can apply for a work exchange project.
-First-time applicants can apply for a two-year project.
-Returning applicants can apply for a short-term project (1-3 years) or a long-term project (3-5 years).
-Norec primarily provides funding to cover the direct costs of sending young professionals or volunteers aged 18-35 on international exchange.
Eligibility Criteria
Partnerships between the following types of organisations can apply for Norec grants: Civil society organisations, Public institutions, Private sector companies, Multilateral and global organisations
Applicants must be legally registered entities within one of the specified categories. The application must include accurate and complete information about the type of organisation.
Eligibility requirements: Partnership approach: Applicants must apply as an international partnership and work together to develop the project; Capacity requirements: Applicants must have the administrative and financial capacity needed to carry out the work exchange project. More specifically all partners must: Have a board of Directors or Trustees (not applicable to all public sector institutions); Have a physical office and be able to provide the participants with a relevant workspace to foster learning and exchange of knowledge among colleagues; Have a digital accounting software. Excel as accounting system is not accepted; Be able to receive funding from abroad; Have consolidated annual audited financial statements. The audited period must not be older than 18 months. If you are exempt from being audited, you need to provide a justification and submit an unaudited financial statement.
For more information, visit Norec.
