In episode #233 of The Grant – the EU funding podcast, I introduce a new funding scheme in the podcast universe: Interreg. To guide the conversation, I’m joined by Viktoria Nilsson from Lund Municipality, who brings years of experience in international collaboration and in Interreg-funded project work. Viktoria explains Interreg as one of the EU’s oldest territorial cooperation instruments, designed to help neighboring regions solve shared challenges together instead of treating borders as barriers. From climate adaptation and sustainable transport to energy transition and labour mobility, the logic is simple: many of Europe’s most important societal challenges do not stop at national borders, so the solutions should not stop there either.

What makes this episode especially useful is that it works as a genuine entry point to the scheme. We move through the basic logic of Interreg, zoom in on the Öresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak programme, and discuss what a typical Interreg project actually looks like: the partnership structure, funding rates, project duration, reporting, evaluation, communication expectations and the constant need to show real cross-border added value. Viktoria also shares practical advice on building partnerships early, involving end users from the start, staying realistic in project design and thinking seriously about what happens after the funding ends.

Time codes:

01:32 Guest introduction and fly in