Few words after the Umbrella project final conference

Three years have passed since Umbrella was approved by INTERREG South Baltic Programme and launched by the partnership. This project was needed since research showed that the South Baltic Programme was still poorly available to small organizations because of insufficient institutional and financial capacities, communication barriers, lack of English language skills, lack of competencies and capacities for project development and implementation. What observed in the frame of the South Baltic Programme could be generalized also for other European grants and other local cross-border cooperation opportunities in the South Baltic Sea area. The overall objective of the project was to initiate a process of the capacity building involving small municipalities, NGOs and other local/ regional organizations in order to transfer the knowledge and capacities and to include them in the current cross-border cooperation networks. Today we can finally state that we’ve achieved over expected results.

On 2^nd December the final conference of the project was held online as an engaging webinar. Short videos alternated to partners’ introduction and presentation of the results with a look to the future and Umbrella 2.0 that will be launched in 2021. This conference aimed to be also a moment of awareness-raising on the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, Sustainable Development Goals and their achievements in the Baltic Sea Region, and the EU Green Deal- a roadmap for the upcoming years.

To conclude, some hints about the future South Baltic Programme and EU programming period were provided. With the fantastic moderation of Mr Maciej Kautz, we can say that we eventually concluded a great project that, as stated many times, is just the beginning. The seeds have been planted, the process has been started and we are confident that with our contribution cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region will be strengthened. Umbrella aimed at becoming a brand in the region, recognized for its replicable toolbox of tailor-made solutions. Well, we have done a great job.

So, what to expect for the near future? For sure an awareness-raising event, “Meet-your-flagship” activities to connect with the EUSBSR, webinars on project management, training on SDG, EUSBSR and EU Green Deal to really engage local actors and connect them with the strategic levels of cooperation. We look forward to getting started and have you all on board!

Dear Umbrella Partners and Beneficiaries,

We are more than happy to say, that our UMBRELLA Interreg South Baltic Programme project final conference was a great success. Over 100 people joined us online via ZOOM webinar to hear about our project results, to learn about the EUSBSR, SDGs and EU Green Deal, but also to discuss the future cooperation possibilities in the MFF 2021-2027.

You can find below all the presentations given by our fantastic speakers.

And here’s a visual summary of the event:

We also hope you enjoyed the 4 video clips summarising our project! You can check them again here:

Finally, if you missed any part of the event or would like to watch it once more you have the opportunity to see all 3 sessions here:

Some screenshots from our meeting:

Dear Umbrella’s beneficiary,

On behalf of the Association of Polish Communes Euroregion Baltic as Lead Partner of Umbrella Project and on behalf of the whole project partnership, we would like to invite you to our final conference. Three years have passed since Umbrella was approved by INTERREG South Baltic Programme and launched by the partnership. This project was needed since research showed that the South Baltic Programme was still poorly available to small organizations because of insufficient institutional or financial capacities, communication barriers, lack of English language skills, lack of competencies and capacities for project development and implementation.
What observed in the frame of the South Baltic Programme could be generalized also for other European grants and other local cross-border cooperation opportunities in the South Baltic Sea area.
The overall objective of the project was to initiate a process of the capacity building involving small municipalities, NGOs and other local/ regional organizations in order to transfer the knowledge and capacities and to include them in the current cross-border cooperation networks. Today we can finally state that we’ve achieved over expected results and we would
like to share them with you.

Register now using this link  bit.ly/Invitation_Final_Conference

See the agenda here:

Time to sum up our Umbrella project in figures!  Did you know that… 

① representatives from 5 countries from the South Baltic, i.e: Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, Germany took part in our project?
② over 300 people in total participated in the project?
③ in over 3 years we have organized 30 live meetings and over 12 online events?

Looking at these figures, we wonder what the next editions of this project will bring us. We already know for sure that a lot is going to happen! Remember that you can still sign up for the conference closing the Umbrella project, which will be held online on December 2, 2020, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm 

Join now! >> bit.ly/Invitation_Final_Conference

See the invitation and the agenda here:

UMBRELLA- Boosting cross-border cooperation capacities of small actors in the South Baltic Sea

FINAL CONFERENCE

2.12.2020 (on-line) 10.00 – 15.00 CE

INVITATION

Dear Umbrella’s beneficiary,

On behalf of the Association of Polish Communes Euroregion Baltic as Lead Partner of Umbrella Project and behalf of the whole project partnership,

We want to invite you to our final conference.

Three years have passed since Umbrella was approved by INTERREG South Baltic Programme and launched by the partnership.

This project was needed since research showed that the South Baltic Programme was still poorly available to small organizations because of insufficient institutional and financial capacities, communication barriers, lack of English language skills, lack of competencies and capacities for project development and implementation. What observed in the frame of the South Baltic Programme could be generalized also for other European grants and other local cross-border cooperation opportunities in the South Baltic Sea area.

The overall objective of the project was to initiate a process of the capacity building involving small municipalities, NGOs and other local/ regional organizations to transfer the knowledge and capacities and to include them in the current cross-border cooperation networks.

Today we can finally state that we’ve achieved over expected results and we would like to share them with you.

On 2nd December 2020, we invite all Umbrella partners and stakeholders, small and local South Baltic beneficiaries to join us and celebrate the final project event.

We will present our project events & activities. But as promised, Umbrella was only the first step for something bigger, and we would like to anticipate that we will have an Umbrella 2.0 in 2021.

Therefore, to prepare for the next year, you can expect also:

a solid portion of knowledge on EUSBSR and SDGs – how to align them better with your daily work and start new cross-border cooperation activities;

• Future of the interregional cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region 
  • Plans for the EU’s MFF 2021-27
  • Hot topics for cross-border cooperation
  • Inside information about the end of the Interreg South Baltic Programme.

#HaveYourSay
We will also organize an interactive session where you can give your input on the future Programme perspective & proposed objectives!

The event will be held online using the platform: ZOOM Webinar

Please register using this link: https://forms.gle/2QoqcpbkvZoLkkzy9

On 2nd December 2020, we invite all Umbrella partners and stakeholders, small and local South Baltic beneficiaries to join us and celebrate the final project event.

What to expect?

• Summary of our project events & activities with comments from Umbrella partners, associated partners and beneficiaries;
• A solid portion of knowledge on EUSBSR and SDGs – how to align them better with your daily work and start new cross-border cooperation activities;
• Future of the interregional cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region
  • Plans for the EU’s MFF 2021-27
  • Hot topics for cross-border cooperation
  • Inside information about the future of the Interreg South Baltic Programme.

#HaveYourSay
We will also organize an interactive session where you can give your input on the future Programme perspective & proposed objectives!

Save the date in your calendar now!

2nd December 2020 at 10.00 am – 15.30 pm CET

The event will be held online!

Registration starts next week, we will post the registration link on our website and social media!

Make sure to check our website: www.umbrellaproject.eu and follow us on social media to get the latest updates!

Dear UMBRELLA project beneficiaries,

On behalf of the Association of Polish Communes Euroregion Baltic as Lead Partner of Umbrella Project and on behalf of the whole project partnership,

We’d like to invite you to take part in a focus group discussion, a ‘group interview’ whose scope would be to consult relevant stakeholders who could valuably contribute in the consultation to build up the priorities of the new INTERREG South Baltic programming period 2021-2027.

The discussions will be conducted online- in groups of maximum 15 people- in a friendly and informal environment with the aim to collect honest opinions, new ideas, needs from the stakeholders on the topics below.

Platform: ZOOM. A link for the participation will be sent to you in advance

FOCUS GROUP 1

TITLE: Building civil & inclusive society

Umbrella partner responsible: Pomorskie in the EU Association (PL)

Moderator: Jens Masuch

DATE: 19th Nov 2020 13.00-15.00 CET

Main areas to investigate:

1. Citizen engagement
2. More inclusive Interreg projects
3. Civil education
4. New and upgraded tools for citizen engagement

FOCUS GROUP 2

Title: Blue and green growth

Umbrella partner responsible: Kalmar Region (SE)

Moderator: Jens Masuch

DATE: 5th November 2020 10.00-12.00 CET

Main objectives to investigate:

1. Promoting sustainable water management
2. New and upgrades capacity for waste water
3. Biodiversity
4. Circular economy

FOCUS GROUP 3

Title: Energy transition/Connectivity

Partner responsible: Klaipeda University

Moderator: Kristina Koebe

DATE: 9^th November 2020 15.00 – 17.00 CET

Main areas to investigate:

1. Fossil fuel-free transport sector – the need for energy storage possibilities.
2. Production of renewable energy and solutions
3. Improved structures for varied and broadened access to renewable energy
4. Need to strengthen power grids for smart energy usage due to electrification of vehicles
5. Combat and mitigate climate changes

FOCUS GROUP 4

Title: Sustainable & innovative tourism

Partner responsible: Guldborgsund Municipality (DK)

Moderator: Jens Masuch

DATE: 10th Nov 2020 TBC 10.00-13.00 CET

Main areas to investigate

1.     Sustainable tourism
2.     Digitalisation in tourism
3.     Competence development in tourism

IMPORTANT:

• Questions and/or other material will be sent in advance to the participants in advance to the participants
• Remember that “Everyone’s contribution is important”. So, get involved!
• The moderator will write a report of the main findings that will be shared with the Interreg South Baltic Programme Joint Secretariat and Joint Programming Committee members working on the new Interreg South Baltic Programme for 2021-2027
• Publication: the report and a recording of the webinar will be made available on Moodle platform- on enrolment in the section dedicated.

Hope that this initiative is of interest to you, we hope to see you soon online and we thank you in advance for your kind contribution.

Kind regards,

Euroregion Baltic and Umbrella team

.“
Newsletter No 5
FINAL of the PROJECT


Anything that has a beginning also has the end. This also applies to our projects. On September 14-15, 2020, we summarized over 2.5 years of activities of the FilmNet (South Baltic Film and Culture network) project.
The final conference was held in Elbląg at the “Światowid” European Meeting Center in September 15th, this year. The day before – a workshop meeting devoted to the possibilities of further cooperation. Additionally,
during this days project partners had the working meeting to discuss the formal side of the project. Both the conference and the workshops were carried out “hybrid”, i.e. the physical meeting and on-line. Conference
participants, both those present in the room and those who watched the on-line meeting, could compare theory with practice, i.e. what was planned within project goals, results and activities with what has been achieved during more than 2,5 years project.

The most important achievements

As we believe, from the point of view of the cross-border cooperation program, the most important achievement is building a permanent international cooperation network of organizations dealing with the broadly understood subject of film and film education. It is a network operating in the South Baltic area and connecting various actors. And they are not just project partners. During the project implementation, new contacts were obtained – in Poland, Sweden and Lithuania. Thanks to this, it is much easier to work on another project – in the area of cinema cooperation, building culture and film education. For partners from Poland and Lithuania, it was especially important to transfer to our regions the experience of the Swedish partner Filmregion Sydost in the field of the functioning of film clubs (as a film education tool). It was succeeded and we informed you about it in Newsletter 4. Both in Poland and Lithuania, such film clubs were established, workshops for children and teenagers were held, and the website https://film-club.pl was built. Here you can find all the necessary information, materials and tools to set up and run such
a club. What deserves special attention are the activities dedicated to
the common baltic identity (Baltic Identity Tour). The partner – Baltic Sea Cultural Center from Gdańsk was responsible for this package of activities. Admittedly, this is not an easy question. 22 films from 4 countries were selected and their screenings later showed a number of problems related to the issue of Baltic identity. For most people, the first associations when we
talk about identity revolve around an individual (personal) identity, not a social (or common) identity. In the summary of the action – the FilmNet Baltic Identity Film Tour report (which we also wrote about it in Newsletter No 3), this problem was noticed – the lack of clear “baltic” identification of the film’ authors (in our particular case the film was used an expression and carrier of identity). Finally, we came to the conclusion that we are before a long process of finding what unites us and, above all, integrating these elements into our national cultures. And, what is more importantly, integrating them into individual human consciousness.

What’s next…
The potential of preserving and developing the obtained effect has already been demonstrated by the FilmNet project. The foundations are established contacts and continued cooperation in the area of film, film festivals and film education. Work is already underway , regarding the next project application for funding under the Creative Europe program. We keep our fingers crossed! Project durability could be achieve thanks to using the tools of supporting film education created by the project: websites, educator’s handbook, lesson scenarios, instructions “How to set up a film club”, as well as trained educators, who will be able to conduct classes within the Film Clubs. Already now, activities in the field of film education are included in the programs of the activities of local Cultural Centers (e.g. in Nidzica or Dzierzgoń). We also hope to continue the film workshops in
Sępopol. With the will to continue activities and cooperation by partners and newly acquired friends, the FilmNet project has a chance for a new life!

So please contact us:

Center of European Meetings „Światowid” , Elbląg (Poland) ; www.swiatowid.elblag.pl
Association of Polish Communes of Euroregion Baltic, Elbląg (Poland); www.eurobalt.org.pl
Nadbałtyckie Centrum Kultury w Gdańsku (Poland); www.nck.org.pl
Institute for New Media, Rostock, (Germany); www.ifnm.de
Filmregion Sydost , Växjö (Sweden); www.filmregionsydost.se
Rietavas Tourism and Business Information Centre w Rietavas (Litwa); www.rietavovic.lt
Pomeranian Film Fundation / Gdynia Film Center (Poland); www.fundacjafilmowa.pl , www.gcf.org.pl

The contents of this Newsletter are the sole responsibility of the authors
and can no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union, the
Managing Authority or the Joint Secretariat of the Interreg South Baltic
Programme 2014-2020

New Umbrella project activities coming soon!If you’re interested in the elaboration of Interreg South Baltic Programme Strategy, its future Priority Axes and Specific Objectives for the programming process of the Interreg South Baltic Programme 2021-2027, please let us know.

In October and November 2020 we will organise 4 online thematic sessions for the #SouthBaltic sea stakeholders to hear your voice and consult with you the objectives of the future programme. These will be later sent to the Programme Joint Programming Committee to help them prepare the tailored-made programme for our beneficiaries.

We will contact around 15 beneficiaries to participate in each session representing the civil society actors, socio-economic partners, small and medium municipalities etc. If you wish to share your insights with us, please contact UMBRELLA project partner from your country http://umbrellaproject.eu/partners/

Thank you, JS Interreg South Baltic Team for organising Annual Event of the Interreg South Baltic Programme

The panels and the speakers were very engaging and it was an informative event for over 170 participants from all South Baltic region countries. Among many panellists we had a great representation of Euroregion Baltic members, representing Kronoberg Region, Bornholm, ERB Youth Board and Kamlar Region, Pomorskie Region, Klaipeda Region Association and International Permanent Secretariat.

The Programme’s Virtual Annual Event 2020 is available now on our YouTube channel. 

If you are interested in a specific part of the webinar, check its timeline, and start watching in a certain time.

Timeline of the webinar:
• 1st panel discussion: 00:14:21 
• Quiz: 1:13:33 
• 2nd panel discussion: 1:25:27