Biophilia
Iceland launched the extensive green economy and sustainable development project called Nordic Bioeconomy. The duration of the project is three years and its first objective was to collect data, to explain what bioeconomy is and to map it. In order to further the project, the Nordic Council of Ministers' Office in Estonia and its partners organised the Green Growth forum Rohevik in Tartu last September.
One of the projects that attracted a lot of attention was Biophilia, which is backed by the world-famous Icelandic artist Björk. Biophilia combines different fields and will start developing top scientists in the future. Read more here.
Nordic Playlist
Culture has always held a central place in Nordic cooperation. Presenting the cultural values of the Nordic countries to the rest of the world via music has been a priority since 2014. A new playlist of Nordic artists and bands is made available on the Nordic Playlist website every week.
The website has become very popular. There are plans to develop it further next year and to organise events that introduce the Nordic Playlist all over the world.
Welfare Watch
The Nordic Welfare Watch is a follow-up to the project initiated by Iceland in 2009. The Nordic labour market, healthcare and gender equality were studied in cooperation with the Nordic Council of Ministers. The data that will be analysed in the next year was collected in the course of the project this year. The Nordic countries want to make the welfare model sustainable and to obtain a better overview of the economic conduct of the Nordic countries in order to protect the model.
Presidency
The Nordic Council of Ministers has an annually rotating presidency. In 2015 the presidency will go to Denmark, which has chosen growth, welfare, values and the Arctic as its priorities.