Baltic Bonus

Baltic Bonus — Top-Up for Baltic Sea Region Collaboration

Supports Latvian researchers and small businesses adding Baltic Sea EU partners to international project collaboration.

The Baltic Bonus is a rolling top-up incentive administered by the Latvian Council of Science (LZP) to promote international scientific and innovation collaboration between Latvian parties and partners in Baltic Sea region EU member states. Eligible partner countries are Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, and Poland. The scheme pays EUR 5,000 to a Latvian organization serving as project coordinator and EUR 3,000 to a Latvian organization serving as project partner, provided the joint project has been assessed above a quality threshold by the relevant partner funding organization. Awards are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis subject to available annual state budget.

Eligible Latvian applicants are scientific institutions registered in the national Register of Scientific Institutions, or micro, small, and medium enterprises registered in the Latvian Enterprise Register. One application is permitted per project side; a single project can therefore generate both a coordinator and a partner award if both roles are held by separate Latvian entities. The critical prerequisite is that the joint project must have already received a positive quality assessment from the partner funding organization — Baltic Bonus cannot be applied for in anticipation of a future assessment. No fixed submission window applies; the scheme accepts applications on a continuous basis until annual budget is exhausted.

Applicants should apply as soon as a positive partner-organisation assessment is received, given the first-come, first-served allocation mechanism and finite annual envelope. The 2026 programme regulation is available at lzp.gov.lv/lv/media/13877/download. Because individual annual budgets are not published, LZP should be contacted directly to confirm available funds before preparing an application. The scheme is particularly relevant for Latvian researchers and SMEs already engaged in Horizon Europe, NordForsk, or bilateral cooperative calls with the listed countries.