Are you
familiar with the SOUTH BALTIC CREATIVE CLUSTER project? Its main objective is
to establish cross-border cooperation between creative industries actors and
local networks in four different locations around the Baltic Sea. Join us and
present yourself in the international virtual arena by filling in the form on
the website:
As part of
this project, we have prepared something interesting for you.
An event you
have not seen before.
Submit your
team and on June 17th 2021 take part in the “Speed dating with Creative
Sectors”. Share your good practices and learn about the secrets of other
companies and institutions. The meeting will also allow you to meet new
business partners operating in the international zone.
Connect with
us and get inspired.
By participating in the event you also take part in the competition, in which you can win two vouchers worth 500 euro for a study visit to the headquarters of a company or institution participating in the meeting or institution participating in the meeting. You also will be part of the European catalogue of creative institutions.
Follow
closely our social media. More information coming soon.
Jump into creativity with SOUTH BALTIC CREATIVE CLUSTER project!
Joint Secretariat of the Interreg South Baltic Programme has released information about the current state-of-the-art in programming the Interreg SBP for the years 2021-2027. You can read it below on go directly to the Interreg SBP website: https://southbaltic.eu/interreg-south-baltic-2021-2027
Euroregion Baltic is directly involved in the works on the new Programme for 2021-2027 being an active member of the Joint Programming Committee, members of two SWokring Groups for the new Programme, as we as leading the Join Delegation of Euroregions in the Programme Monitoring Committee.
The Joint Programming Committee (JPC) was established and the 1st meeting took place on 4th February 2020, during the meeting, the JPC Rules of Procedure, as well as Terms of Reference for the socio-economic analisys, were adopted. In the following months, the public procurement procedure was carried out and the best offer was selected. Contract with the PWC Advisory was signed on 18th June 2020.
During the second meeting of the JPC held on 22nd of June 2020, PWC Advisory presented the methodological report and the first results of the study. The cooperation with the Contractor was divided into two stages:
In the first stage, Contractor was obliged to conduct socio-economic analysis, SWOT/TOWS analysis and Problems and Objectives Tree (POT). The socio-economic analysis, SWOT and POT stage ended on 8 October 2020 and it was a starting point for further discussions and decisions on Programme Strategy, Priorities and Specific Objectives;
In the second stage on the basis of the conducted research, surveys and workshops with JPC, MA, JS, public stakeholders etc. (held in the Summer) as well as requirements and requests submitted during the 3rd JPC meeting (10th September 2020), Contractor prepared a proposal of the Programme Strategy, Priority Axes and Specific Objectives, covering:
In the Programme Strategy
– characteristics of the eligible area;
– most important common challenges;
– characteristics of the basic social, economic and territorial differences occurring in the CP area.
In the Programme Priorities and Specific Objectives
– justification of the choice;
– related types of actions and their expected contribution;
– indicative percentage breakdown of funds by category of intervention;
– first proposal of the output indicators and result indicators selected from the common list;
– the main target groups.
The first proposal of the Strategy and Programme Priorities was delivered on 20 October 2020 by the PWC Advisory. Working Group 1 was established by the JPC (20 October 2020) and started work jointly with the Contractor on Programme Strategy and Priorities. During the 4th JPC meeting organised on 3-4 November, 2020 first draft of the Strategy was presented.
The next step was the establishment (19 November 2020) of the Working Group 2 for the implementation arrangements of the future Programme. Afterwards, the second draft of the Strategy and Programme Priorities incorporating the results of the WG1 discussions was developed on 30 November 2020.
Currently, work is focused on the joint elaboration of contribution to Programme Document according to the template for Interreg Programmes as stated in the draft of Interreg regulation:
Programme strategy: main development challenges and policy responses etc.;
Priorities, covering: specific objectives, types of actions, indicators, main target groups etc.;
Financing plan (incl. ERDF and national co-financing);
Implementing provisions (Programme Authorities, liabilities of Member States );
Use of simplified costs options.
During the 5th JPC meeting planned for 12th January 2021, the final draft of the Strategy, Priorities and Specific Objectives should be adopted. In the next steps planned for I – II Quarter of 2021, the process of drafting of the Cooperation Programme document as well as Strategic Environmental Assessment will begin.
The Joint Secretariat of the Interreg South Baltic Programme encourages all stakeholdrs to take part in the public consultations of these documents. Information will appear on the programme website in due course.
In Newsletter No. 1, we wrote about film screenings as a part of the activities within the FilmNet project – about “Baltic Identity Film Tour”. Such shows and discussions have already taken place in all partner countries, and the Baltic Sea Culture Center from Gdańsk has prepared an Activity Report. What were the results?
The
main question we tried to answer is: what is the common Baltic identity and
does it exist at all, despite many differences between our countries?
The
tool that was used to study the identity elements of the inhabitants of the
Baltic countries – was, of course, the film. Partners from each country have
selected short films (not earlier than in 2016) – and together they chose about
a 100-minute set of films, each of them individually selected for public
screening and film discussion (with experts and the audience). All films were
discussed in details, often induce heated debate about their connection with the
map of concepts.
Nevertheless, several common thematic
areas were identified in the selection process, forming groups of related films
from all partner countries. These
issues include: present, cultural code, individual identity, past.
There
were a total of 2 shows in Germany, 1 in Sweden, 1 in Lithuania and 2 in
Poland. What are the
conclusions?
.
As the authors of
reports from shows and discussions state: at all meetings, the discussants were
sceptical about the existence of the Baltic identity. It’s not easy to find the
answers through the films. They
emphasize the differences between more than common features.
It
can, therefore, be said that the effect of these meetings was a kind of
“discrepancy protocol” – differences in the history, mentality and
customs of the citizens of individual countries. Therefore, it is worth to consider if the searching/building a joint
part between the Baltic Sea countries should not start from a geographically
lower-level – regional level determined in one way or another by the Baltic Sea
(in psychosocial, economic and tourist terms, maybe also historical).
In sum: experience
from the film shows and discussions (and quite common skepticism of
interlocutors regarding the Baltic community/identity) inclines to go dawn on
the lower level of the debate, and at the same time strongly associated with
the Baltic Sea, which in this case becomes a geographical but also a cultural
centre of experience of the Baltic regions.
if the film it’s supposed to be an image of the
problems of the community living in this region and also the starting point
for a more monophonic discussion (and
comparable inference), it is worth considering whether to choose films that
directly refer to the Baltic Sea and regional communities located around it – Prof. Krzysztof Kornacki Institute of Culture Research Gdańsk University
The UMBRELLA project aims at building the capacity of local actors. We believe that this is the most effective way to deliver better and more sustainable policies at the local level. The projects and smaller bottom-up initiatives initiated at that level enable the achievement of the overarching objectives set by the “top-down” framework provided by the EU, called the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR).
That is why the EU funding programmes and organizations that use the resources to support their initiatives are important. And that is why the UMBRELLA project is important—because we help to boost this process. One of the primary objectives of the UMBRELLA project is to provide specific knowledge and skills in the implementation of goals and cross-border cooperation for local and regional entities in the South Baltic Region.
As part of this objective, we have initiated the project to develop a set of educational materials on the subject of project management, consisting of: – Beneficiary Manual (available for download in this post) a handbook for beneficiaries of the UMBRELLA project that introduces them to the subject of project management
— Trainer Manual a handbook for trainers of the UMBRELLA project, who conduct courses and workshops based on Beneficiary Manual
— Multimedia Presentation available at the UMBRELLA project Website and intended for use during such courses and workshops as well as for self-education of the beneficiaries.
Do you have a concrete project idea that you would like to submit in upcoming call for proposals? Umbrella project gives you the opportunity to “Rent-an-Expert”!
How does it work?
A pre-selected Expert will support you in assessing and developing a complete project application in your organisation:
Providing information on the application procedure
Tailoring project ideas
Helping to find partners
Developing part of the application- Budget
Developing part of the application- Description of the activities
All you have to do to apply for this service is to fill in the project framework we prepared for you (you can download it below). Your project ideas will be collected and categorized; later on, the most suitable expert from our “Pool of experts” will be assigned to your organization and single meetings for project development will be scheduled.
N.B. We do not substitute the EU Programme’s Contact Points. We do not only provide consultations, but we aim at transferring knowledge to help our stakeholders to become independent in future cross-border cooperation.
Join us for the Umbrella project management training in Telsiai on 22nd November 2019.
You can register to his training, as well as all the others (in Lithuania, Sweden, Poland and Denmark) using this registration link: https://bit.ly/2IuFu7B
You can choose the training on the following dates and cities:
21/10: National training in Kristianstad (SE)- Basic
28/10: National training in Chojnice (PL)- Basic
28/11: National training in Gdansk (PL)- Advanced
22/11: National training in Telsiai (LT)- Basic
04/12: National training in Ringsted (DK)- Basic
05/12: National training in Kalmar (SE)- Basic
10/12: National training in Klaipeda (LT)- Advanced
10/01: National training in Alvesta (SE)- Advanced
24/01: National training in Elbląg (PL)- Basic
28/01: National training in Nida (LT)- Basic
20/02: National training in Roskilde (DK)- Basic
All the material for the training are available on our Moodle platform here: https://umbrellainterreg.moodle.school/login/index.php
Simply register and use them for free!
Dear Swedish Stakeholders,
a workshop to introduce the work of EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (and MRS) and participation in the Strategy will be organised on 4th November 2019 in Hässleholm.
Feel free to spread this information in your networks and register for the event.
Our Umbrella is co-organizing the event and we will be presenting our support possibilities.
Workshop: Att lyckas med samarbete med länder i Östersjöregionen
Category
Events
Date
From 04/11/2019 00:00 to 05/11/2019 00:00
Venue
Norra Station – Norra stationsgatan 6A, Hässleholm
Välkommen till workshop: Att lyckas med samarbete med länder i Östersjöregionen
Dag: 4 november 2019
Tid: 9.00–16.00
Plats: Norra Station, Norra stationsgatan 6A, Hässleholm
Globaliseringens utmaningar känner inga gränser. Allt oftare framstår samarbete med andra länder som mer effektivt och ibland helt nödvändigt.
Tillväxtverket, Svenska institutet, Svenska ESF-rådet, Universitets- och Högskolerådet samt Föreningen Norden har utvecklat regionala workshoppar för att introducera arbetet inom EU:s strategi för Östersjöregionen.
Bland deltagarna finns myndigheter, näringslivet och civilsamhället – lokalt, regionalt och nationellt samt på EU nivå. Vi vänder oss till ett brett spektrum av aktörer som ofta har ansvar för utvecklingsarbete i sina organisationer, förvaltningschefer, utvecklingsansvariga, näringslivschefer och aktörer inom civilsamhället.
Workshoppens syfte är att visa hur EU:s makroregionala strategi konkret kan användas som en ny samarbetsform. Under workshopen får deltagarna kunskap om hur aktörer på alla samhällsnivåer kan samarbeta inom strategins ram för att hitta lösningar på aktuella samhällsutmaningar.
Vi kommer också att diskutera olika finansieringsmöjligheter för denna form för transnationellt samarbete.
Workshoppen är en del av arrangemanget “Två dagar för europeiskt samarbete”, som bl.a. regionerna Blekinge, Skåne, Kronoberg och Kalmar län står bakom och som äger rum 4 och 5 november. Vi bifogar information om hela arrangemanget och fördjupad information om vår workshop. Hör av dig om du vill ha mer information om aktiviteterna på kvällen den 4 november och den 5 november.
We invite all the stakeholders interested and working with the energy issues to join us on 25th October in Gdańsk.
Umbrella project, together with the EUSBSR PA ENERGY Coordinator and the Economic Development Department of the Pomorskie Marshall Office, will host a full-day expert conference where we will discuss the issues connected to the:
future trends in energy cooperation;
environmental management;
electromobility.
We invited guests and speakers from the South Baltic area: Lithuania, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Poland. Our conference will give you a unique opportunity to hear about the recent EUSBSR PA ENERGY projects, future plans and developments, learn from the success stories from successful transnational project consortiums working in the area of energy and endless opportunities for the networking and finding partners for your future cross-border activities.
If you would like to become one of the speakers during our event and present your thematic case-study or project idea – please contact BISER team, conference organisers: biser@biser.org.pl
We will also share info on how can we help you within UMBRELLA project network to reach your goals, i.e. by providing expert knowledge, helping you with the project application etc.
Registration for the meeting will start soon, and we will inform you about this via our website and social media, so stay tuned!
Another month and yet another Success Story from the South Baltic Programme! This time we wish to inspire you by presenting the BalticMuseums: LoveIT! – Brand, gamification and Apps for museums and tourist attractions project!
Hi, my name is Jurgita Eglinskiene. I’ve been working in international projects at the Lithuanian Sea Museum in Klaipeda for many years.
This year, we celebrate our museum’s 40th anniversary and the 10th anniversary of a series of projects with our BalticMuseums community: since 2009 we’ve been cooperating with other museums, universities and IT specialists in the South Baltic region to exploit chances of digitalization in our visitor services. Back in 2009, we had started with clumsy specialized devices for offering eGuide tours, and now, just ten years later, we jointly develop gamified apps to be used on the visitors’ smartphones. Technology changes very fast, and so do opportunities. With the project, we can share developments and will be able to use the visitors’ own electronic devices instead of providing them as a museum. This means we can concentrate on the content of our museum, to produce the stories around it and focus on how to make the visit involving and mind-changing for our guests.
The project “BalticMuseums: LoveIT!” helps us implement new IT services for visitors in our museum. We will have a new multi-lingual app for visitor’s smartphones (Bring Your Own Device BYOD), with gamification elements. To gain input for such app, we wanted to work with external users. We had a chance to take the challenge of organizing a hackathon, a creative programming marathon, in our museum for the first time! With this example, you can understand how much cooperation is worth.
Our project partners in Gdynia (Poland) – NMFRI Gdynia Aquarium and Experiment Science Center – had already hosted a hackathon in the project. They were supported by two partners from Szczecin (Poland) – University of Szczecin and Netcamp. After that, all learnings were gathered and documented by Stralsund University of Applied Sciences (Germany). With this input and the support of our colleagues from Poland, we could organize our hackathon event.
Then, we extracted our learnings and passed the baton on to Malmö Museums (Sweden) and NaturBornholm (Denmark), who hosted the third hackathon. After that, again, a concept revision was made, and the final hackathon was hosted by Business Academy North and Stralsund University of Applied Sciences (Germany). Here, we opened up and seven museums, which are not partners of the project, participated with their topics in the event. This process helped us to learn as an international team, continuously revising a concept that we created together and then opening it up to others.
Apart from working on the BYOD tools and content, we are also preparing a joint brand for our app, so that we can reach a higher impact within the project community and beyond. In our project, we have strong focus on learning and exchange. In online sessions, we also get input from other organizations outside of our project. We reflect our learning and share it online on a knowledge base (www.knowledge.balticmuseums.info).
In addition to the ‘hard’ results from the project, we have other benefits. The project work has encouraged us to approach many things in the museum in a fresh way. To name some examples: for working with the Generic Learning Outcomes concept in the exhibition we got new perspectives from colleagues from Malmö, or analysing User Experience and finding critical points in the visitor journey in our museum was freshly inspired by colleagues from Gdynia. So, we gain not only new tools, but also ideas, and a spirit of sharing, openness and improvement.
In our museum, many employees are engaged in the project, from the educational department, PR, IT, and project management. Thus, the project provides inspiration to all our organization. But it does not end there. Due to the project’s dissemination activities, other museums from our region know about the international activities the Lithuanian Sea Museum is participating in and the results that we achieve with it. That strengthens the image of our museum, helps us to be a leader and advisor to the colleagues in Lithuania. We just celebrated the museum’s 40th anniversary and invited our international partners from various projects as well as Lithuanian colleagues. It is was received as a great exchange and inspiration. Thus, we can leverage our experiences beyond our own institution.
Personally, I became a real friend to many people living far away from me, who work in very different fields. Without the project, I would never have had a chance to make those friends. Being a member of a project family, makes me feel being an essential part of an international community. My advice is: Don’t be afraid of joining any international project or community – it always pays off in the sense of new friends, experience and opportunities for new ideas and activities!
Photo BM5: BalticMuseums project team meeting in Malmö, Sweden
JURGITA ALSO SHARED WITH US HER THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ON WORKING IN SBP CROSS-BORDER PROJECT! READ HER INSPIRING COMMENTS AND LET US KNOW IF YOU HAVE A SIMILAR STORY YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE! WE WILL BE HAPPY TO INTERVIEW YOU AND GET O KNOW BETTER YOUR SOUTH BALTIC PROJECT.
What has been valuable or what was the greatest asset for you as a person to be a part of this project?
I became a real friend to many people living far away from me, who work in very different fields. Without the project, I would never have had a chance to make those friends. Being a member of a project family, makes me feel being an essential part of an international community.
What have you discovered from working with other nationalities? Is there something you discovered and you considered as a surprise (for its originality, something you discovered about your country that you did not know before?)
I’d say, we’ve learnt much of each other, for example: from Scandinavian people – to be properly dressed and prepared for any weather conditions, to be open to everything that nature can suggest and award us with; from German people – to be more active and efficient everywhere: at work, during your holiday or in leisure time; from Polish – never to loose good temper and high spirits. To sum it up, it’s a great inspiration for working with people from different national cultures and work backgrounds!
What has your organisation gained from the project?
The project “BalticMuseums: LoveIT!” helps us implement new IT services for visitors in our museum. We will have a new multi-lingual app for visitor’s smartphones, with gamification elements. To keep up to date with ever-changing tech developments, the work in our interdisciplinary project team of museums, universities and IT specialists is extremely helpful for us. In this field, change happen so fast, that we need to share developments with other institutions to continuously have an attractive offer for our visitors. In addition to the ‘hard’ results from the project, we have other benefits. The project work has encouraged us to approach many things in the museum in a fresh way. To name some examples: for working with the Generic Learning Outcomes concept in the exhibition we got new perspectives from colleagues from Malmö, or analysing User Experience and finding critical points in the visitor journey in our museum was freshly inspired by colleagues from Gdynia. In addition, we had a chance to take the challenge of organizing a hackathon, a creative programming marathon, in our museum for the first time! So, we gain not only new tools, but also ideas, and a spirit of sharing, openness and improvement.
Have you experienced any successful spinout of your project /added value? (have you had any successful surprises of your project?/ have you learnt something you could apply/ suggest in your own country?
During our BalticMuseums hackathon event, the technology of hologram was proposed. The idea had won the competition but was not directly applicable to our BalticMuseums project. Inspired by the hologram solution we created another project. To open up our museum, we place a temporary exhibition in Klaipeda City centre. The hologram technology was applied inside a marine shipping container, showcasing an exclusive shell from the museum’s collection. Thanks to the hologram technology the exhibit was very emotionally touching.
What have we discovered working in cross-border cooperation with other nationalities?
Being in an international partnership for many years, we gained a wealth of experiences that allows us to feel confident in any international contacts, activities or relations. We have developed our point and our position, which allows us to act as an equal, reliable and respectful partner.
And finally – on a strategic level:
How has the project made an impact on your area?
Due to the project’s dissemination activities, other museums from our region know about the international activities the Lithuanian Sea Museum is participating in and the results that we achieve with it. That strengthens the image of our museum, helps us to be a leader and advisor to the colleagues in Lithuania. We just celebrated the museum’s 40th anniversary and invited our international partners from various projects as well as Lithuanian colleagues. It was received as a great exchange and inspiration. Thus, we can leverage our experiences beyond our own institution. The project “BalticMuseums: LoveIT!” allows us to implement new and modern tools which put us in an advanced situation to provide an engaging museum visit to our visitors.
Has your project had an impact at the policy level?
Not yet, but likely in the future. We focus on the promotion of national maritime history. It is discussed and approved in Lithuania, that school programmes and other sources of education lack information and attention to national maritime history. We hope that our tool will have a further impact on the situation.
Tips & tricks
My advice is: Don’t be afraid of joining any international project or community – it always pays off in the sense of new friends, experience and opportunities for new ideas and activities!
This story was delivered to you by UMBRELLA project!
On 24-25 of September the 4th South Baltic Programme Annual Event will take place in Ostróda, a city located in the western part of the Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodeship in Poland. This year, the annual meeting will be dedicated to sharing experiences and learning from each other about important issues reaching the final stage of projects’ implementation.
Last year around 150 participants from different countries and institutions took part in the event in Klaipeda, Lithuania. This year we anticipate again a high interest as the Annual Event 2019 will give us an opportunity to meet across the exciting South Baltic projects!
Therefore, we invite project partners, representatives of local and regional authorities, scientists, researchers, businesses, NGOs, politicians interested in the fields of green technologies, environmental protection, maritime industry, labour market, sustainable tourism and transport.
The first day – networking, capitalisation and social activities
On the first day networking activities, seminars and discussions will give us an insight into the important issue of capitalisation. To strengthen and create new cooperation networks we, of course, took care of social activities.
The second day – communication, durability, future challenges and expectations
On the second day, two sessions of parallel workshops will be led by invited experts, Regional Contact Points and the Joint Secretariat team. You will have the opportunity to exchange with other experienced project partners on issues such as sustainability of results, the upcoming Programme Period and challenges in intercultural cooperation.
The registration will be opened by the end of July. As the number of participants is limited, hold your travel arrangements until getting the confirmation of registration.
