Category: Projects

Participation Day 2019 and UMBRELLA mid-term conference in Gdańsk!

EU Strategy for Baltic Sea, Latest, News, Projects

Almost 100 participants from Baltic Sea Region NGOs, academia, municipalities and various transnational projects joined us on 11th June 2019 in Gdansk to take part in 3rd Participation Day.

This years event was organized jointly by the EUSBSR HA Capacity coordinators, Umbrella project, which is led by the Euroregion Baltic, and Union of the Baltic Cities. We invited the stakeholders to come and share their project ideas for future cooperation possibilities in our region.

Please see below the list of projects sent to the organisers and discussed during the event:

  1. Innovations for a circular and socially coherent economy (25)
  • Waste Management and handling Household Waste in the BSR (Sweden)
  • Baltic Sea clusters network for innovation in the maritime industry (Poland)
  • Remote sensing of marine plastic pollution (Poland)
  • Smart Regions 4.0 (Poland)
  • Biking South Baltic – More Emotion (Poland)
  1. Urban mobility – smart and sustainable (7)
  2. Antimicrobial resistance and pharmaceuticals in the Baltic Sea Region environment (6)
  • Operational consortium (Poland)
  1. Competence supply (12)
  • SECiSo – supported education to re-integrate early school leavers (Sweden)
  • STEAM –  increasing the attractiveness of science and technology (Finland)
  • Digital employment – how digital solutions can be used for workers’ continue learning (Finland)
  • EduPython (Poland)
  1. Other proposals (for example; access to clean water, green technologies, rural development) (17)
  • Baltic Cultural Strategy Network – forming a network of those cities in the BSR that have been European Capital of Culture (Sweden)
  • Application of satellite data for environment management (Poland)
  • Enhancing stakeholder participation in the EUSBSR by honing their sustainability skills (Poland)
  • Changes in agricultural production due to climate change (Poland)
  • ESTLAT harbours (Latvia)
  • Coastal hiking (Latvia)
  • Vertical wind power-stations (Poland)
  • Studio visit (Poland).

At first, participants were welcomed by the Vice Marshal of the pomorskie Region and ERB Board Member – Mr Wiesław Byczkowski, followed by Anders Bergstrom, representing both HA Capacity and PA Education as their coordinator. He also explained the concept of Participation Day. They were followed by three inspirational speeches from the representatives of 3 different sectors:

Public sector
Mr. Mikko Lohikoski, Union of the Baltic Cities


• Private sector
Mr. Tomasz Szymczak, Starter Incubator and Gdańsk Entrepreneurship Foundation (ppt here: Participation Day Gdańsk Tomasz Szymczak


• 3rd sector
Ms. Magda Leszczyna-Rzucidło, Euroregion Baltic (ppt here: PD2019 MagdaLeszczynaRzucidloEuroregionBaltic)

After a short break, Anders Bergström, Horizontal Action Coordinator, HA Capacity presented RU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region in brief – presentation here: EUSBSR_HA_CAP_Participation_Day_2019_Gdansk_20190611 

All five workshops are linked to the overall theme of the Annual Forum addressing the growing challenges such as depopulation, ageing, migrations, new production and consumption models, but also new social, cultural, mobility and labour market patterns, which influence our everyday behaviours and attitudes. The introduction by the PA and HA Coordinators provided an overview of existing development processes in the five thematic areas including possibilities to take part in existing
development processes.
1. Innovations for a circular and socially coherent economy – Ms Esa Kokkonen, PA INNO
2. Urban mobility – smart and sustainable
3. Antimicrobial resistance and pharmaceuticals in the BSR environment) PA Health Hazards – AMR and pharmaceuticals in BSR region
4. Competence supply – Daria Akhutina, CBSS
5. Other proposals (for example; access to clean water, green technologies, rural development –  full list of the projects is attached here: EUSBSR_Participation_Day_2019_PROJECTS)

Thank you to all the #UMBRELLA partners for being with us in Gdansk and thank you to all the participants for fruitful discussion, lots of great ideas and fantastic networking sessions!

As for the Participation Day concept – we will see you next year in Finland!

UMBRELLA project 2nd Awareness Raising Event in Denmark

Latest, News, Projects

On Europe Day, 9th May, UMBRELLA project held its second Awareness Raising Event. What better occasion to talk about EU opportunities for municipalities and educational institutions? These were the main focus groups of the conference that took place in Sorø, a small municipality located in the core of Region Zealand and perfect location to gather stakeholders from all the surroundings The host was Guldborgsund Municipality, represented by our Umbrella’s partners Anna Topp Gustavsen and Frede Danborg, and by the Mayor John Brædder, who spent some welcoming words to provide an overview of the region’s affairs and projects. Co-organizer of the event was CELF- Centre for Vocational Educational Lolland- Falster, represented by Claus Brandt Kristensen.

What was the scope of our Awareness Raising Event? Well, as you might know, Umbrella is committed to increase capacity among local actors in the South Baltic Sea and to do so, information stands at the basis of all our activities. After the first ARE, held in Gdansk in June 2018, many things happened but there’s always need to meet new people and improve the networking, covering all the regions where our partners are located.

Very good point in our ARE was the presentation conducted by “Greater Copenhagen EU Office”, represented by Jesper Blaabjerg Holm who talked about EU funding opportunities, with some hints for the future programming period 2021-2027.

The afternoon session was marked by three parallel workshops on:

  • Renewable Energy, with focus on biomass and biogas thanks to the participation of the Energy Agency for the southeast Sweden and Gate 21 (DK)
  • Cultural Cooperation, that gathered a group from cultural centres and museums that came up with ideas for further cooperation
  • Educational cooperation, moderated by CELF representatives.

Please see all the presentations below:

Sorø maj 2019Download
Presentation_May_2019_Umbrella_clkrDownload
Sorø ARE 9 maj 2019 (002)Download
International cooperation in municipalities 9 May SorøDownload
2019-05-05 – Præsentation i Sorø vol 2Download

We hope that the numerous occasions of networking during this day laid the basis for further collaboration and that participants will feel inspired to follow our next events and activities in fall!

, , , , , , ,

Adventures of the ERB Ivy volunteers

Latest, News, Projects

Hi everyone!

Here are Milena and Danilo, two young Italian Ivy volunteers (lost) in Poland.

No, we didn’t know each other before and we are not doing the same project. Actually we don’t even live in the same city.

But last week there was a very interesting event in Gdansk, the “Communication Training for project manager”, organized by the South Baltic Interreg, and we have met there.

We couldn’t stop to talk about our different experiences:

I am an Interreg Project Partner the at International Permanent Secretariat Euroregion Baltic in Elblag, while Danilo is an Interreg Reporter at Joint Secretariat INTERREG SOUTH BALTIC PROGRAMME, in Gdansk.

What does it means?

Well, in few words, Danilo is mainly involved in communication and dissemination of information concerning INTERREG projects, cross-border cooperation and so on;

Regarding me,  instead, my tasks are more related to support and implement 2 INTERREG projects: CaSYPot, which aims is to find a common Youth Strategy among the Baltic Regions, and InterConnect, which focuses on new and more efficient public transport services.

Where do we live?

We are both in Poland; Danilo lives in Gdansk, one of the largest cities in Poland, on the Baltic Sea. It’s an international city, full of students, tourists and young people. There is a river that goes into the city centre, which reminds me of Navigli in Milano, just to give you an idea.

I live in Elblag, not far from Gdansk. Ok, we don’t have the sea, but we have beautiful parks and forests. When the weather is nice I go with my super-bike among trees and wild vegetation.

What’s next?

Honestly, we don’t know exactly, but for sure this experience has brought us a lot. We are both thinking of staying in Poland for the future, or maybe for a few years.

Danilo has even managed to learn a bit of Polish, which, believe me, is not easy at all!

We want to say thanks to IVY for this experience, thanks to Euroregion Baltic International Permanent Secretariat and Joint Secretariat Interreg South Baltic Programme to host us,

we are learning a lot from You, from the organizations and from the people are behind them.

, , , ,

UMBRELLA & EUSBSR HA Capacity joint event – Participation Day in Gdańsk!

Calendar, Calendar, Events, Projects

Dear friends of the Baltic Sea Region,

The successful collaboration between organizations and people in the Baltic Sea Region requires broadest possible mobilization and participation of stakeholders in all respective countries. European Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) requires strong bottom-up participation and a sense of “ownership” by various stakeholders. This applies to both policy shaping and practical implementation.

Participation Day2019 Full InvitationDownload

The participation of citizens and organizations at all governance levels, across sectors and across all borders is a prerequisite for the positive development of cooperation within the EU and an important part of the EU’s cohesion policy. Like previous years, even this year´s Participation Day is arranged In connection with the Annual Forum.

The Participation Day is an important opportunity for new stakeholders to get in touch with the cooperation within the EU and to meet colleagues who already have experience of EU cooperation in the Baltic Sea region.

Participation Day is a kind of marketplace where stakeholders can present their ideas, get feedback and guidance from the policy community enabling new stakeholders to participate in the implementation of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. Our aim is to reduce the step into the Strategy, making our guiding principle with multi-level governance and cross-sectorial cooperation a reality. We invite representatives of EUSBSR stakeholders, such as local and regional authorities, civil society organisations, academia, business and media, to the Participation Day in Gdansk.

Organizers

This year’s Participation Day focuses on four thematic areas

• Innovations for a circular and socially coherent economy

• Urban mobility – smart and sustainable

• Antimicrobial resistance and pharmaceuticals in the Baltic Sea Region environment

• Competence supply.

The UMBRELLA project team and HA Capacity as the organisers will do their best to ensure that as many different organisations/networks as possible can attend and present their proposals and views. You are therefore also invited to present in advance short, concise and concrete project proposals, concepts or ideas about the themes of the Participation Day.

Program PD2019Download

Come and join us on 11th June in Gdańsk!

, , , , , ,