The High North Civil Preparedness Forum is a three-year, EU-funded project lead by the High North Cooperation. The project aims to strengthen interregional collaboration within civil preparedness in northern Finland, Sweden and Norway. The target groups for the project’s activities are key civil preparedness stakeholders in the in the region, such as municipalities, agencies, and volunteer organisations.
The project will annually arrange an international cooperation course (ICC) focusing on one of NATO’s seven civilian baseline requirements. The first course, in the fall of 2025, will focus the third baseline requirement: managing uncontrolled movements of people. In addition to the courses, the project includes two networks, one for actors in the field of healthcare and mass casualty management, and one so-called Border Rescue Council.
The purpose of host nation support (HNS) is to enable international civilian and military actors to operate on, or move through, a country’s territory. Within the project, the actors will share experiences from previous work with HNS in each country, carry out knowledge-building activities, and investigate how we can collaborate during ongoing HNS operations across national borders.
All three countries are already working today to analyze and assess risks within their geographical area. Within the project, we will investigate opportunities to harmonize methods used for risk assessment, and to make a joint risk assessment for the High North region.
Undue information influence and influence campaigns are above all a threat to democracy and free opinion formation. In the project, we will increase knowledge in the area and identify how we, within the three countries, can jointly counteract information influence and, among other things, develop a strategy for this.
Before the final report of the project in 2028, there will also be an action plan that describes how the work in different areas will continue after the end of the project.
Project coordinator: Linda Hällgren
On 25 November 2025, High North Cooperation (HNC) gathered emergency services from northern regions of Norway, Sweden, and Finland for a joint communication exercise. This is the second time the HNC carried out this test, and this time the County Governor of Nordland was responsible for planning and hosting. The purpose was to check that the systems work across borders and to learn what can be improved.
Representatives from the two northernmost counties in Sweden, as well as from Finland and Norway, have met to discuss how to strengthen interregional cooperation related to the ability to deal effectively with uncontrolled movement of people and to take care of refugees.
The High North Cooperation organises an International Cooperation Course (ICC) with a special focus on NATOs third baseline requirement: Ability to deal effectively with the uncontrolled movement of people. The course is intended for key stakeholders in northern Finland, Sweden, and Norway. The course will be held in Sweden in
