The research and innovation cooperation through the Winter Navigation Research Board (WNRB) is based on a joint Swedish - Finnish agreement dating back to 1972. In order to take stock and report on developments the Finnish and Swedish maritime agencies, members of the WNRB and cooperation (Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, Finnish Transport and Communications Agency, Swedish Maritime Administration and the Swedish Transport Agency) have decided to evaluate 50 years of research and cooperation. In their evaluation report, two external and independent evaluators, one from Finland and one from Sweden, have focused their assessment efforts on some main areas. These main areas include the overall governance, organisation and processes, research calls, research quality, research results and their societal impact and the relevance for winter navigation and operational icebreaking services. Furthermore, the evaluators assessed funding arrangements and long-term cooperation in demand driven winter navigation research.