About 200 people from across the country attended a launching conference of the Scholarship and Training Fund (STF) in Warsaw on 9 May.

The purpose of the conference was to present the activities eligible for financing by the Fund, whose intermediary is the Foundation for the Development of the Education System.

The official inauguration of the STF in Poland was conducted by: His Excellency Knut Hauge - Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway to the Republic of Poland, Janusz Mikuła - Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Regional Development and Mirosław Marczewski - acting Director-General of Foundation for the Development of the Education System.

Knut Hauge

“I hope that the Fund will help reduce economic and social differences as well as strengthen relations between Poland and Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein”, said Ambassador Knut Hauge during the conference.

Janusz MikułaJanusz Mikuła, Deputy Minister of Regional Development, emphasised the possibility of contact with the STF intermediary in Poland for the purpose of obtaining assistance in searching for a partner institution from the donor - countries which contribute to and established the Fund: Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

Mirosław Marczewski

Mirosław Marczewski, acting Director-General of FDES, said: “The Scholarship and Training Fund is a fund that supplements many activities carried out under European Union programmes, including Erasmus and Comenius. We encourage those who have cooperated with Norway, Iceland or Lichtenstein under these programmes to come over to the Fund. It provides resources for cooperation with these countries, and they are relatively greater than funds from EU programmes; STF can provide as much as 250,000 euro to co-finance projects.”

Participants in the conference were representatives of government administration – Ministry of Regional Development, Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Science and Higher Education, representatives of higher educational institutions, foundations and NGOs as well as representatives of educational administrative bodies such as local educational authorities and Educational Departments of Provincial Governor’s Offices.

The conference was also attended by foreign guests from partner institutions: Barbora Závodská from the Czech Republic (Centre for Higher Education Studies), Gro Tjore and Vidar Pedersen from Norway (Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Higher Education – SIU), and Helene Rønning, representative of the Financial Mechanisms Office in Brussels.

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