2.8 Perspectives on the collaboration

There are quite large differences between respondents in Russia and Norway in terms of their satisfaction with the Secretariat along the dimensions mentioned. Russians are on average more satisfied with the information about funding opportunities (66% are ‘very satisfied’ in comparison with 29% of the Norwegians), application procedures, access to Secretariat staff and funding levels, while the Norwegian respondents express much more satisfaction than Russians in terms of the flexibility and the level of bureaucracy of the Secretariat staff.

Collaboration between partners from different countries, with differences in culture, language, political and administrative systems and economic levels, to mention some of the most obvious, may be enriching but may also entail some difficulties. In the survey we wanted to find out to which extent the collaboration between Russian and Norwegian partners had been characterised by positive as well as negative features. Thus, we presented a battery of questions regarding collaboration (every other item a possible obstacle and every other a possible asset), and asked the respondents to what extent each of them had been characteristic of their own project. The following were the potentially negative aspects:

• Imbalances in resources • Misunderstandings due to cultural differences • Language difficulties • Professional differences, diverging views on project implementation

while the potentially positive aspects listed were the following:

• Shared understanding of problems and challenges • Openness and transparency between the partners • A good balance between the different partners in the project • Development of closer relations throughout the project period

First we look at the potentially negative aspects, where the results are presented in Figure 2.11. Imbalances in resources are perceived as the most critical obstacle to the collaboration. The fact that three quarters of the respondents see this as a problem for their collaboration, and close to 40% see it as a major problem, is a clear indication that such imbalances represent an important challenge. Other difficulties are much less widespread, as the figure shows. Language difficulties are there, but not to a large extent. Even fewer complain about professional differences and misunderstandings. We will come back to the question of possible misunderstandings below, however.

Figure 2.11 Perception of potentially negative aspects of the collaboration between Norwegian and Russian partners. Percentage of respondents indicating that different aspects are characteristic of such collaboration, to a large extent or to some extent.4 (n=125)

Imbalances in resources

Language difficulties

Professional differences To a large extent To some extent

Misunderstandings

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Positive impacts of the project collaboration are also easy to discern (Figure 2.12.). More than eighty percent indicate that each of the aspects are present at least ‘to some extent’ in their own

4 The two other categories that are not reported here are ’to a minor extent’, or ’not at all’.

project for all the four items, and a majority of them that this is the case ‘to a large extent’. Most positive evaluation by project participants concerns an alleged shared understanding among the project partners, which is important if the project is going to be efficient. A vast majority also think that closer relations between the partners have developed throughout the project period, as can be seen from the figure. The slightly lower score for balance among the partners can probably be explained by the perceived imbalance in resources experienced by many respondents. Openness and transparency are important elements in international collaboration, and the proportion indicating this to be the case in their project is satisfactory: half the respondents ascertain that this is the case ‘to a large extent’. It is worth noting that for all the items on collaboration the Russian respondents give a more positive evaluation with, as a rule, substantially more support for the positive aspects and less for the negative aspects according to their own project experience compared to the Norwegian respondents.

Figure 2.12 Perception of potentially positive aspects of the collaboration between Norwegian and Russian partners. Percentage of respondents indicating that different aspects are characteristic of such collaboration, to a large extent or to some extent.5 (n=125)

Shared understanding

Closer relations

Partner balance To a large extent To some extent

Openness and transparency

0 20 40 60 80 100

When interviewing project leaders on project collaboration during the field work of this evaluation, the evaluators encountered several cases where the respondents had felt that the project had stopped, been delayed, or had little progress on the other side of the border without understanding why it was the case. Thus it was decided to include a question in the survey on this phenomenon, to find out how typical such situations are for both Russians and Norwegians in the collaboration. In fact, a majority of the respondents (55%) had experienced such situations, but of those who had experienced them, they were said to be rare incidents (42%) while 14% ascertained that they had happened often. Thus, this appears to be a rather frequent phenomenon in Russian – Norwegian project collaboration. We will discuss this phenomenon in more detail later in the report.

5 The two other categories that are not reported here are ’to a minor extent’, or ’not at all’.