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WaterMan Interreg Baltic Sea Region Seed Money Facility project kicked off

WaterMan Interreg Baltic Sea Region Seed Money Facility project kicked off on 28th October 2020.
Our #ERB Water Core Group & project partners from Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania and Russia will be very busy next 12 months preparing the main project concept.
WaterMan project received the support from EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region  #PANutri coordinators and we will work on the “Climate-resilient wastewater and groundwater management by circular approaches that reduce outflows of nutrients and hazardous substances”.

Project summary

Climate resilient wastewater and groundwater management by circular approaches that reduce outflows of nutrients and hazardous substances – WaterMan project

Reducing the outflows of nutrients & hazardous substances to surface water, groundwater and the Baltic Sea, in particular, is the primary concern of water management in the BSR and will remain its foremost task in the future. At the same time, the effects of climate change pose new challenges to water supply: Droughts limit in specific periods the quantity of water for various uses (e.g. drinking water, agriculture). Floods impair the

quality of drinking water – and thus indirectly its quantity, too. SMHI has predicted that problems linked to water shortage will become even more severe in the future.

The two mentioned tasks cannot be addressed as a question of either/or. The ambition must be to meet environmental goals at a high level and to secure water supply. Possible synergies between them, however, were hitherto not widely addressed: If effluent water is retained, re-circulated & re-used, water supply will not only be more secure & climate-resilient. At the same go, this will be an effective way to reduce outflows of

nutrients & hazardous substances.

WaterMan develops and promotes circular approaches to reduce outflows of nutrients & hazardous substances to surface water, groundwater and the Baltic Sea in particular, which at the same time contribute to the climate-resilient water supply. Its centre of attention is measures & techniques to re-use water from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and the retention of water before flowing into the Baltic Sea. Thus, less

groundwater resources will be needed for drinking water production & other uses, and water supply becomes more climate-resilient.

The project focusses thereby on measures at the local level and on areas in the BSR, where the water supply may be significantly affected by climate change. Primary target group are, consequently, municipalities & water companies that are responsible for local water management.

WaterMan explicitly addresses this by developing circular approaches for local actors. Partnership and work plan will ensure that innovative solutions emerge and will disseminate them effectively to potential further users in the BSR:

– The project initiates a BSR-wide peer learning process among local authorities & water companies, which have experiences and a high level of proficiency. Thus, pre-work from different parts of the BSR can be transferred, combined and advanced. This will make local approaches more effective while decreasing individual efforts for development.

– The dissemination of “ready-to-use” solutions to be developed and tested is not regarded as “altruistic obligation”, but is a crucial concern of WaterMan.

Consequently, the partnership will include both, “hand-on partners” that develop & test new solutions (municipalities, water companies), and umbrella organisations (e.g. associations of local authorities) with a genuine interest in spreading the knowledge to their members.

Seed Money is funding provided by Interreg Baltic Sea Region to support the preparation of projects in line with the Action Plan of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. With Seed Money support, projects can be prepared for any funding source available in the region.

The Seed Money application procedure consists of two steps. In step one, an applicant submits a draft application to Policy Area and Horizontal Action Coordinators who preselect draft applications (typically six weeks after submission). In step two, authors of preselected draft applications are invited to submit full applications to the Managing Authority/Joint Secretariat (typically within six-eight weeks after preselection). The Monitoring Committee selects Seed Money projects for funding typically three months after submission.

Our application is the result of work undergoing in Water Core Group since May 2019. ECG submitted the concept note in Dec 2019 that was positively assessed by PA NUTRI Coordinators and we were invited to submit the full application. On 23rd March we have sent the file and we await the information from the JS. The results are expected in June 2020.

What is the project about?

Reducing the outflows of nutrients & hazardous substances to surface water, groundwater and the Baltic Sea, in particular, is the main concern of water management in the BSR and will remain its foremost task in the future. At the same time, the effects of climate change pose new challenges to water supply: Droughts limit in certain periods the quantity of water for various uses (e.g. drinking water, agriculture). Floods impair the quality of drinking water – and thus indirectly its quantity, too. SMHI has predicted that problems linked to water shortage will become even more severe in the future.
The two mentioned tasks cannot be addressed as a question of either/or. The ambition must be to meet environmental goals at a high level and to secure water supply. Possible synergies between them, however,
were hitherto not widely addressed: If effluent water is retained, re-circulated & re-used, water supply will not only be more secure & climate-resilient. At the same go, this will be an effective way to reduce outflows of nutrients & hazardous substances.

WaterMan develops and promotes circular approaches to reduce outflows of nutrients & hazardous substances to surface water, groundwater and the Baltic Sea in particular, which at the same time contribute to the climate-resilient water supply. Its centre of attention is measures & techniques to re-use water from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and the retention of water before flowing into the Baltic Sea. Thus, less
groundwater resources will be needed for drinking water production & other uses and water supply becomes more climate-resilient.
The project focusses thereby on measures at the local level and on areas in the BSR, where the water supply may be particularly affected by climate change. Main target group are, consequently, municipalities & water
companies that are responsible for local water management.

An interesting year ahead for Interreg Baltic Sea Region. As underlined by Susanne Scherrer, Director of the Managing Authority/ Joint Secretariat, in the course of 2018 projects of the first call will deliver their main outputs, project platforms will pick up their work to maximise the effects of projects’ results and the vast majority of the Programme’s funds will be allocated to the third call project selection. From 5 October 2017 to 15 January 2018, Interreg Baltic Sea Region was accepting new project ideas for a more innovative, better accessible and sustainable Baltic Sea region in the third call for project applications. As many as 269 project idea forms have been submitted throughout this time period.

As for the Baltic Sea cooperation with Russia, the Financing Agreement between the Russian Federation and the European Commission has successfully been concluded and signed. A total of EUR 8.8 million of EU and Russian funding is now available to enable full participation of Russian partners in our cooperation projects and thus closes the circle of countries bordering the Baltic Sea. According to the Financing Agreement, the European Commission allocated EUR 4.4 million from the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) to Interreg Baltic Sea Region for Russian beneficiaries. In parallel, Russia earmarked EUR 4.4 million for the Programme budget. The funding rate for Russian partners is up to 85%. All funds will be implemented based on the same set of Programme rules.

At the same time, the foundation of Transnational Cooperation funding after 2020 is being laid. The document is a good opportunity to take a look at the role that Interreg transnational programmes actually play in the context of the EU’s cohesion policy and at the added value of transnational cooperation from the Baltic Sea region and across Europe.

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The Interreg BSR Programme is looking for a project officer at the MA/JS office in Rostock/Germany to support the Secretariat’s project unit in giving advice to applicants, assessing applications as well as in monitoring and supervising transnational cooperation projects in the fields of innovation, natural resources and transport.

The vacancy is open till 3 April 2017. The job is a full-time position for two years with an option for a prolongation.  The selected candidate is expected to start employment as soon as possible.

For more information about expected tasks, requirements and conditions of employment, please go to the Programme’s official website.

The Maritime Institute in Gdańsk and the Pomorskie in the EU Associations, project partners of the Smart Blue Regions project, in cooperation with the national contact point (NCP) networks BioHorizon and ETNAplus, are organising the „Be Smart, Think Blue“ conference on the 19th and 20th September 2016 in Gdansk.

Three projects, namely the Smart Blue Regions Interreg BSR project (Smart specialisation and Blue Growth in the Baltic Sea Region) and the two European NCP network projects BioHorizon (Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy) and ETNAplus (Smart, green and integrated transport), have joined forces to strengthen Europe’s capacity for efficient Blue Growth.

Smart specialisation is a key concept for boosting innovation around the EU. Understanding the role of smart specialisation in enhancing the European Blue Growth sector is a prerequisite to making the most of the sea of opportunities open to stakeholders. In addition to regional specialisation and funding, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, Horizon 2020, provides several funding opportunities for marine and maritime R&I projects on a European scale. Creating synergies between all available funding sources is the ultimate goal of the “BE SMART – THINK BLUE” event.

The aim of the overall two-day event is to create an inspiring space and encourage a spirit of effective cooperation amongst blue growth actors from across Europe.

For more information including the programme and registration form, please visit the official registration website.

Source: http://www.submariner-network.eu/index.php/projects/smartblueregions/smart-blue-regions-news/148-save-the-date-be-smart-think-blue-conference-in-gdansk

The content of this website is the sole responsibility of the author and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union, the Managing Authority or the Joint Secretariat of the South Baltic Cross-border Cooperation Programme 2014-2020. The project UMBRELLA is partly financed from the Interreg South Baltic Programme 2014-2020 through the European Regional Development Fund.