The first Steering Committee meeting of the IVB Programme was held on 6-7 December in Gothenburg, Sweden. 10 project applications were presented to the Steering Committee for approval or rejection. Following a discussion of the qualities of the individual projects, the Steering Committee decided to approve 2 projects.

The approvals were conditional as outstanding issues in relation to the involvement of private sector partners remain to be resolved by the European Commission.

In addition to the 2 approved projects, another 4 projects were found to have significant potential but not ready for approval in their current state. These projects will be recommended to re-apply at a later stage.

The Secretariat will clarify the decisions of the Steering Committee in a letter to each of the project applicants and provide guidance to individual projects if necessary.