Beneficiaries and project partners must be located (have their legal address) in the Programme area.
The Programme funding may up to a limit of 20% be used for financing the expenditure incurred by project partners from adjoining areas in Estonia and Latvia.
In accordance with the Article 40 of the Implementing Rules each project shall involve at least two partners, of whom at least one project partner shall be located in the Programme area in one of the Member States and at least one project partner located in the Programme area in Russian Federation.

Following bodies can be beneficiaries and project partners:

• National, regional and local public authorities;
• Associations formed by one or several national, regional or local authorities;
• Public equivalent bodies (any legal body governed by public or private law):
  • established for the specific purpose of meeting needs in the general interest, not having an industrial or commercial character,
  • having legal personality,
  • financed, for the most part, by the State, regional or local authorities; or other bodies governed by public law, or subject to management supervision by those bodies, or having an administrative, managerial or supervisory board, more than half of whose members are appointed by the state, regional or local authorities or by other bodies governed by public law (for example, municipal and state enterprises, trade unions, medical institutions, museums, etc.)
• Associations formed by one or several bodies governed by public law;
• NGOs and other non-profit making bodies;
• Educational organisations (schools, preschool institutions, colleges, institutes, universities);
• Small or medium sized enterprises (hereinafter referred to as “SMEs”) (only within priority 1).

SMEs are eligible for participation in the Programme under the following conditions:

• private company is micro, small or medium sized enterprise, which means it employ fewer than 250 persons and it has an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million, and/or has annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million;
• SMEs can be eligible for funding in projects whose immediate objective is non-commercial;
• the results of the projects with the involvement of SMEs have to be available for the use of wide public;
• in case of participation of SMEs max Programme co-financing rate is 50% of the total eligible costs of this SME;
• SMEs cannot act as a Beneficiary of the project;
• SMEs cannot act as the only partner from the participating country.