Social Entrepreneurship Innovation Camp Methodology Handbook is an outline of the guidelines for organizing innovation camps or similar events with strong focus on social entrepreneurship. This Handbook has been developed in the framework of the INDIGISE project („Promotion of Social Entrepreneurship in the Youth Sector by Digital and Informal Education Tools“, April, 2020 – March 2022), which is focused on young people, who are looking for positive social and (or) environmental changes in society, and (or) feel the need to create own business, but lack support, competencies and finance. Combining the experience of universities’, NGOs’ and business networks’ professionals, and operating with the latest trends in education, INDIGISE project partners from Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Norway provided such support and promoted youth social entrepreneurship in the Baltic Sea Region by digital and informal education tools.

This Manual is a set of interactive and innovative educational material and ICT tools as well as gamification and brainstorming methods dedicated to training, educating and raising awareness on the subject of social entrepreneurship among youth that is recommended to use by EU countries’ schools, universities, NGOs etc. 

The content of the Handbook is of a recommendatory nature, can be easily modified according to the specifics of the innovation event, and contains the following main sections:

• General parameters about when, where and how to organize the event, who should be the main key players of the innovation camp: their responsibilities and duties.
• Time schedule: how to prepare for the innovation event on time and properly.
• How to find and select the most motivated participants and to encourage sponsors, judges, trainers, conventional and (or) social business representatives, moderators, volunteers and other key players to participate in the event.

Social entrepreneurship is a unique idea – mission of the 21st century that, because of different historical and business ecosystem development as well as present attitude in different countries, is perceived and defined differently. Social entrepreneurship is a model of activity, the essential mission of which is to solve social and environmental challenges through commercial activities. Social businesses use innovative and business-based approaches to make life better in our communities or to address environmental issues. 

Innovation camps are a highly effective tool for steering young learners towards developing social business ideas, that may one day be realized, something which is not always easily achieved in a traditional classroom context, as well as the perfect way to educate and motivate academic staff, non-formal education providers, industry experts how to encourage more entrepreneurship education in the classroom.

We believe that with social entrepreneurship innovation camps a social business idea will become more understandable, recognized and attractive!

INDIGISE Project’s Partners:

• Klaipeda University (Lithuania) – Coordinator
• Social Innovation Centre (Latvia)
• Baltic Institute for Regional Affairs, BISER (Poland)
• Stowarzyszenie Gmin RP Euroregion Baltyk (Poland)
• Kristiansand Katedralskole Gimle (Norway)

INDIGISE Project’s Associated Partners:

• Junior Achievement Norway, Agder (Norway)
• National Youth Council (Latvia)
• Baltic Sea NGO Network (Poland)

On 17th December representatives of all project partners coming from Sweden, Poland, Estonia and Russia met to discuss the upcoming project activities foreseen for the beginning of 2022. Euroregion Baltic was represented by our expert – Krystyna Wróblewska.

Creative Waves – Women Sisterhood for Change project.

Empowering women in the Baltic Sea Region by meeting traditional crafts, local traditions and customs etc with the digital modern world and its demands for change is our goal.  Women active in knitting, weaving, storytelling, herb gathering or traditional cooking gather online with creative and digital women experts to get more confidence, show their achievements and learn about the digital world and tools to help them function in the COVID times and beyond. They also meet at international events (online and in flesh) to exchange experience, learn, even more, look together for Baltic traditions and identity. Hopefully in arranging the events while implementing the project its partners will bring together more experienced women and the youth as well as migrant women – to enrich the exchange and help participants be more rooted, open and self-assured. The project is also to help learn about and implement EU key policies like EU Green Deal, European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

The project partners under the leadership of Intercult Productions in Stockholm are: Baltic Sea Culture Centre in Gdańsk, Association of Polish Communes Euroregion Baltic, Estonian Women’s Studies and Resource Centre (ENUT) and a team of women activists from Kaliningrad Oblast. The project lasting from September 2021 to September 2022 is co-finessed by the Council of the Baltic Sea States Small Project Facility 

Funded by the CBSS Small Project Facility 

Baltic Sea Youth Platform is an Erasmus+ Programme project aiming at empowering youth and fostering actual participation in decisions and policy-making in the Baltic Sea Region. It started on February 1st 2020 and was prolonged from August 2022 until December 2022. Despite many difficulties and inconveniences caused by the pandemic, the project partnership supported and got involved in many significant youth-oriented initiatives throughout the past year, thus promoting the idea of BSYP.

In 2021 project partners meetings were held online every two weeks, which contributed to building strong engagement and developing new initiatives and great ideas for further cooperation.

On March 1st, BSYP conducted the Youth Forum within the 2^nd EU Macro Regional Strategies week hosted by DG REGIO. Julia Orluk, ERB’s Youth Board former Chairwoman, who’s been engaged in the BSYP project from its’ very beginning, was among the panellists of the bottom-up session to empower the participation of Youth and Civil Society Organisations in MRS.

In March 2021, the First Interim Report for the Baltic Sea Youth Platform Erasmus+ project was submitted and approved by the Swedish Agency.

In April, the BSYP project participated in two youth-oriented events:  BSSSC Youth Network on April 14th and Digital Youth Workshop on Green and Social entrepreneurship co-organized with Youth4Nature.

May 2021 was another busy month for BSYP. On May 6th BSYP became a part of a youth panel during a CBSS trafficking conference focusing on human trafficking during the digital era. The meeting was co-organized by TH-TFB and the CAR unit of the CBSS. Next, on 12^th – 14^th May, the CBSS Ministerial Youth Edition was held, where again BSYP was very active. During the event, young people from the Baltic Sea region came up with great ideas that evaluated the CBSS Vision Statement Beyond 2030, presented to the Foreign Ministers at the CBSS Ministerial on June 1st.

Finally, between 28^th and 29^th May, BSYP joined the BSSSC Youth Spring Event, where modern democracy, Baltic sustainability and entrepreneurship were discussed with experts from EU Parliament.

On June 22nd, all BSYP project partners and associated partners joined Partnership Day to work on the platform vision with ACTER experts. Project partners discussed further steps regarding virtual platform development, toolkits and guidelines issues within Baltic Sea Youth Power Box, policy recommendations, youth input to the Baltic Sea Cultural Cities and other matters connected to the external report.

August 2021 was also filled with extraordinary events dedicated to Youth, and the BSYP project was proud to be a part of them. Starting up with 41^st Hanseatic Days days on 19^th -21^st August, a hybrid event taking place in Riga and online. Among others, the program included the “Youth Hanza” event, which was a virtual meeting of young people from member cities, during which issues of current issues in the region such as the climate and environment, the participation of young people in these processes, as well as the history and traditions of Hanseatic cities were discussed interactively.

On 28^th – 31^st August, BSYP joined the ReGeneration Week 2021 – a hybrid event, where people participated physically on the Åland Islands and through the streaming tool Coeo. The ReGeneration Week provided an international meeting place for intergenerational dialogues for a sustainable system change. The theme for the ReGeneration Week 2021 was “ReThinking The System”, which highlights the need for a sustainable recovery after the pandemic. ReGeneration Week 2021 offered interactive lectures and workshops, intergenerational dialogues and provided tools to contribute to a more sustainable life in connection to the five different domains in Anatomy of Action.

On August 29th, the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS)/Baltic Sea Youth Platform, together with the Swedish delegation to the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC) and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Sweden, organized the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Youth Forum to promote dialogue between young people of the region and policymakers.

The Forum gathered young people and members of parliament from the Baltic Sea Region who discussed how to secure a democratically and environmentally sustainable future. It provided an opportunity for young people to give input to policymakers on the issues at hand and gain insight into international parliamentary cooperation.

Furthermore, BSYP was an active participant at the EUSBSR Annual Forum 2021. On September 30th, CBSS organized a panel discussion on Empowering Youth for Green Entrepreneurship, which became a platform for young entrepreneurs from across the BSR to share their insights on how to start a green business and provide their experience regarding existing obstacles and barriers for receiving funding and building a business model. The panel also gave the floor to representatives of financial institutions and programmes. The participants also had an opportunity to discuss how to improve the status quo regarding financial mechanisms and accessibility and provide a more supportive environment for young people to start their businesses in the BSR. The last day of the Forum was entirely dedicated to youth issues. Participants joined a plenary session on Youth’s involvement but also heard more about Klaipėda as the European Youth Capital 2021, the role of Youth in implementing ambitious green agenda of the EU, the presentation of Lithuanian Sea Museum, creative workshop on SDGs, presentations of sustainable solutions of businesses and many more.

In October, CBSS announced a call for the Baltic Sea Youth Dialogue 2021: Looking forward, looking back – 30 Years of Collaboration in the Baltic Sea Region. The dialogue, held between 4th-28th November, consisted of three lectures on the following topics: Safe & Secure Region, Sustainable & Prosperous Region and Regional Identity. All participants of the lectures had an exciting opportunity to dialogue with experts from the region. The discussion was followed by two activities: a cross country assignment and a learning diary. Each activity’s best creative entries were later awarded during the online ceremony on December 11th 2021.

On November 1st, the Baltic Sea Youth Platform partnership announced the recruitment for the Baltic Sea Talent Pool. Young people (18-30 years old) eager to be active in shaping policies within the region could apply to join one of the working groups: advocacy – responsible for writing policy recommendations and taking part in the events,  culture – implementing local actions and being part of the development of the Baltic Sea Cultural Cities and Regions Project Or to become a part of BSYP taskforce for child protection policies.

On November 23rd, CBSS presented the BSYP during the “Connecting minds across the ages” side event at the NDPHS Partnership Annual Conference.

Finally, on 25^th and 26^th November, the BSYP project partners met physically in Stockholm for the first time after nearly 20 months. At the two day meeting, organized in the premises of CBSS, representatives from Sweden, Norway, Lithuania, Estonia, Germany and Poland, including many youth representatives, had an opportunity to discuss the current status of the Project, partner contribution, funding options, add-ons to be created, development of intellectual outputs within Project as well as Strategy, Vision and Partnership beyond 2022. The second day of the meeting was filled with some great workshops within the Baltic Sea Belongs to Kids project and very fruitful discussions among members of BSYP Working Groups.

• BSYP Vision Beyond 2022

As a follow-up of the youth involvement in the first CBSS Committee of Senior Officials meeting in mid-September, BSYP was asked to provide a first draft of a vision for the BSYP after the project ended. The document is an internal document of the CBSS to continue the discussions on the institutionalization of the BSYP. It was meant to start a debate amongst the CBSS Member States on how financial support of the BSYP could look like after the Erasmus+ Project ends. On November 23rd, the CSO met and discussed the BSYP Vision Beyond 2022 proposal and how to move on with the BSYP.

International Digital Innovation Camp has been organized online from 15-17th of November 2021 for young people from Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, and Norway to design and validate social entrepreneurship ideas designed by youth for solving specific challenges – loneliness and social isolation of people. The event has been scheduled for three days to introduce participants to the challenge and the context of their work, initiate brainstorming and idea conceptualization in national groups, engage mentors to provide feedback, develop their own presentation and present the solutions developed by young people. 

The results were more than AMAZING! <3

So what exactly has happened?

Day 1 (16.11.2021)

The event has started with the short intro from the Digital Innovation Camp organizer, Tharald Lundvall from Junior Achievement Norway. An energizer activity was organized by Even Fjellestad from UiA CoLAB.

Mini-lecture was held by Chief architect, town planner, and co-housing idea enthusiast  Michael Fuller Gee. He has introduced young people to the problems different society groups face today and the ways in which mindful city planning might solve them. He has spoken about the problem of loneliness and the inability to connect socially for those, who live alone. These problem has been clearly showcased by the Covid-19 pandemics and the rising numbers of depressions and suicides detected. There are different reasons for the single-person household trend and each case is individual. However in the future when there are twice more seniors as we have now, the consequences might not be beneficial, especially for those being unable to move on a long-distance or receive healthcare or other services due to living in distant places and having no support around.

Therefore Michael Fuller Gee has introduced his concept of co-housing and its’ principle’s implementation in the city design as a solution to the emergent problem. Co-housing allows to build communities around the living spaces and combat the feeling of isolation and loneliness among very distinct social groups and even within them. This introduction helped Innovation Camp participants to become more aware of the relation between city planning and the emotional state of its inhabitants.

After the presentation,  participants were provided with information on the context of their work. Due to the Covid restrictions and inability to meet in Kristiansand, Norway (initially planned Innovation Camp destination), the video was compiled to show around the Kristiansand and the specific venue – the Kings Center in Kristiansand. The center is an old building being restored to transform it into a co-housing for the elderly, youth, and people with physical disabilities under the same roof. Kings Center has been introduced as an object and the basis for the projects developed by Innovation Camp participants.

Later participants were divided into national groups to work on one of the assignments proposed. They were supposed to design activities and services (e.g. care services, social activities, business activities) that make the co-housing centre an attractive place to live in for:

1. elderly people,
2. people with physical disabilities, or
3. students

Also, participants were supposed to explain how can their planned solutions be implemented/organized and carried out jointly by the inhabitants.

In national teams, young people started designing their ideas and discussing the possibilities.

Day 2 (16.11.2021)

During Day 2, national teams have continued to work on their project ideas. Each team had a chance to present their draft ideas to the mentors and receive feedback for improvements. Teams have discussed the variety of ideas with mentors from Norway, Denmark and Latvia, and chosen the ones with the highest potential. After consultancy with mentors and within the teams, participants were able to conceptualize the presentations of their developed solution.

Day 3 (17.11.2021)

On Day 3, all teams made their final touches to the presentations and presented their project ideas to the jury and Innovation Camp participants. The final presentations included one team from Latvia, one team from Lithuania, 2 teams from Poland, and 2 teams from Norway. Participants were assessed by the Jury based on the following evaluation criteria: Answering the assignment, Creativity, Feasibility, and Presentation quality.

On behalf of the INDIGISE project network, we applaud and congratulate all three winning teams of the Digital Innovation Camp – Team Poland (1st place), Team Lithuania and Team Latvia (shared 2nd place).

So, what solutions have been developed to ensure the King’s Center co-housing concept succeeds in delivering an inclusive social environment and emotional wellbeing to its inhabitants – youth, people with physical disabilities and youth?

Six teams of young people from Lithuania, Poland, Norway and Latvia have proposed the solutions, that has the potential to improve seniors’, youth’s and disabled peoples’ physical activity and emotional state indoors and outdoors, pointing out the opportunities to place training stations and areas around the King’s center in Kristiansand. The team from Latvia has even introduced the concept of E-sports Academy for seniors, focusing on seniors-customized and ergonomic video gaming and quality leisure time together with young gamers in a cohousing. Other ideas have introduced different concepts of spending time in a community environment by crafting and doing arts together, preparing food and sharing cafe areas, designing common communication platforms and motivation systems of volunteer and other stakeholder engagement in community life. Community gardening has also been chosen by several teams as a great idea to be introduced in a King’s community center to combat isolation, loneliness and improve life quality.

(pictures from the presentation of Innovation Camp participants – presented by the teams from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Norway)

The event has been developed under the INDIGISE project funded by the Erasmus+ programme. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

This call aims to involve people aged 18 – 30 years old in shaping policies within the region. There are three thematic groups to apply:

Advocacy Working Group

Politically interested young people who want to shape policies in the Baltic Sea Region.

Culture Working Group

Active young people who want to implement local activities and advise decision – makers on cultural projects in the Baltic Sea Region.

Taskforce: Child protection

Young people who are interested in child protection policies and would like to conceptualize a child protection working group.

The deadline for the submission is November 8^th, and is held via this link: https://bit.ly/3nRBaDq

More detailed information is available on the CBSS website and the Baltic Sea Youth Platform website.

The next meeting of the BSYP Working Groups is scheduled for November 25th and 26th in Stockholm and via remote tools. Euroregion Baltic will be present in Stockholm, we will have two representatives of the International permanent Secretariat and 3 Euroregion Baltic Youth Board members.

FAQ

FOR WHOM? 

Everyone between 18-30 years old. 
No special knowledge needed.

Do not worry about your level of English, joining our Working Groups is a great way to improve your own personal skills. 

HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE? 

Every group will meet twice per month.

If you join a group, you should stay active for at least 6 months. There will be tasks distributed within the group.

If you take over such responsibility, please consider carefully if you have the time to fulfil the task. 

IS THERE ANY SUPPORT AND MENTORSHIP? 

Yes, the Council of the Baltic Sea States and other partners of the Baltic Sea Youth Platform will support the groups and provide guidance whenever needed. 

WHY SHOULD I JOIN? 

This is a great opportunity to enhance your own skills in teamwork, international cooperation, the English language and in the topic you will be working in. 

You can learn a lot and share your experiences with others while working for a much bigger purpose: real youth participation in the region. 
You will be the one driving the change, engaged in all our activities and getting all the latest information before anyone else. 

You have the chance to work with mentors and experts in various fields and you can build a network that will help you throughout your life. 

WHAT IS THE GOAL OF THE WORKING GROUPS? 

The aim of the Working Groups is to promote youth cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region and show that young people are active drivers of change. You will get the chance to speak to decision-makers and influence decisions to create a more sustainable, safer and prosperous region. 

IS THERE A DEADLINE FOR THE APPLICATION? 

Yes, we will close the application on

08.11.2021, 23:59 CET Sign-u

Euroregion Baltic, Baltic Sea Culture Institute in Gdansk, Kaliningrad team of activists and Estonian Women’s Studies and Resource Centre ENUT, under the project leadership of Intercult Productions from Sweden, have just kicked off a BSR project aiming at empowering representatives of most vulnerable groups, especially women, in the ever digitalising times of pandemia and post-pandemic.

Together, we – women experts and participants –  want to build a feeling of identity, belonging, continuity and agency. We are reaching out to women artists, activists and creatives who may feel isolated, depressed and at a loss as the result of COVID-19 restrictions and the world moving more and more towards digital relations. Using tools of culture and traditional cultural activities we plan to bring traditions and demands of current times together. 

Basing on the intangible cultural heritage of the BSR and its localities such as embroidery, weaving, herb gathering, cooking close to nature, singing or producing music, we want to create bonds and exchanges both in physical and virtual reality. As the result of local real-life workshops and online exchanges and meeting, we will produce a tool kit as guidance for further use which will base on the joint pool of experience and a special survey. In our work, we will use a circular approach promoting the EU Green Deal, EUSBSR and Sustainable Development Goals.

The ultimate goal is to create a stronger, healthier and more resilient society with everybody on board, as well as a more friendly physical and digital space.

Creative Waves – Women Sisterhood for Change project – updates Dec 2021

Empowering women in the Baltic Sea Region by meeting traditional crafts, local traditions and customs etc with the digital modern world and its demands for change is our goal.  Women active in knitting, weaving, storytelling, herb gathering or traditional cooking gather online with creative and digital women experts to get more confidence, show their achievements and learn about the digital world and tools to help them function in the COVID times and beyond. They also meet at international events (online and in flesh) to exchange experience, learn, even more, look together for Baltic traditions and identity. Hopefully in arranging the events while implementing the project its partners will bring together more experienced women and the youth as well as migrant women – to enrich the exchange and help participants be more rooted, open and self-assured. The project is also to help learn about and implement EU key policies like EU Green Deal, European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

The project partners under the leadership of Intercult Productions in Stockholm are: Baltic Sea Culture Centre in Gdańsk, Association of Polish Communes Euroregion Baltic, Estonian Women’s Studies and Resource Centre (ENUT) and a team of women activists from Kaliningrad Oblast. The project lasting from September 2021 to September 2022 is co-finessed by the Council of the Baltic Sea States Small Project Facility 

General information about the Call and CBSS Funding Instrument:

The 2021 CBSS PSF call focused on innovative solutions for strengthening resilience and inclusiveness in the BSR during a period of crisis.

The CBSS was looking for:

• Innovative projects promoting the development of inclusive programmes designed to support groups particularly vulnerable to the pandemic and its effects, in order to offer them alternatives and strengthen their exit pathways from the crisis. 
• Innovative projects that assess the impact of the crisis on domestic violence or develop strategies, tools and collaboration to build stronger, more accessible, inclusive and sustainable systems for child protection.
• Innovative projects build on analysis of crisis impacts on societies and economies, which aim at proposing strengthening of societal resilience in a future, especially taking into account cross-sectoral character of problems and solutions (ex. culture in time of crisis and as a tool to build resilience and help societal and economic recovery, youth as vulnerable group in time of crisis and as a group able to develop innovative recovery strategies and projects).

About the selection

By the deadline 31st of March 2021, the CBSS Secretariat had received 55 submitted PSF applications.

The type of partners in this year’s call have been diverse, varying from NGOs and research centers to public institutions and universities.   

The projects have been selected to reflect the selection criteria in the PSF manual, as well as the wording in the PSF 2021 call. The projects selected:  

• Present a direct relevance to at least one of the three CBSS long-term priorities, 
• Align with the selected PSF call 2021 subject, Innovative solutions for strengthening resilience by promoting inclusiveness and protection of most vulnerable societal groups in the BSR during a period of crisis 
• Provide substantial added value for the Baltic Sea Region cooperation,  
• Display quality and a sustainable character, 
• Involve relevant partnership constellations, where partners are well established and includes at least three CBSS Member States. 

• List of the selected projects:

Although young people constitute a substantial part of citizens worldwide, they are not fully recognised in policies and strategies, as a separate group of interest. They play a crucial role in societal and economic development and are often referred to as „agents of change“. Simultaneously, the unemployment of youth is one of the greatest global challenges.

Social entrepreneurship is a way to address this problem, contributing to sustainable and inclusive job creation.

Existing forms of youth engagement in economic activities are not sufficient and often not adequate for the targeted audience. Entrepreneurship education has very formal frames and structures, and it is rarely fostering an entrepreneurial mindset and attitudes among youngsters. There is an agreement, however, on the strong impact of youth work in entrepreneurship and culture. It develops transversal skills, gives an opportunity to exercise skills in practice and increases cultural activities which influence young people’s creativity.

Youth work and non-formal, as well as informal learning, play an important role in developing young
people’s creative and innovative potential, including entrepreneurial skills underlined in recent youth
policy and programmes at the EU and national levels. This brings us to the question of ”How to engage young people in this process successfully?”. The youth workers play a crucial role in the educational processes by introducing different initiatives (like youth cooperative activities) to the youth and providing information and advice on how to make a decision and provide the risk assessment,
be creative and understand the market’s reality. But furthermost they help to develop social skills:
establishing relations, leadership skills, conflict management and others.

1. The first chapter of the guide introduces social entrepreneurship and its importance for developing the skills and competencies of youth.
2. The second one presents the forms of learning methods: formal, informal and non-formal, their characteristics, advantages and disadvantages.
3. The next chapter reflects on the qualitative research carried out by the project partners and presents points of view of experts invited to participate, aiming at explaining the ways in which the social entrepreneurship of youth can be stimulated.
4. The fourth, last chapter describes the situation in the partner countries, as for approaches towards social entrepreneurship and interesting initiatives that are undertaken.

The guide “How to stimulate social entrepreneurship via nonformal and informal learning methods“ is being developed to assist youth workers (teachers, youth leaders, etc.). It identifies methods, techniques, and strategies for working with youth and promotes a holistic approach to young people’s entrepreneurial attitudes.

Download the document here: Guidelines “How to stimulate social entrepreneurship via non-formal and informal learning methods.”_compressed_compressed-skompresowany

On 31st March 2021 WaterMan project partners and associated parties related to the works of ERB Water Core Group met together to discuss the works on the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Seed Money Facility project “WaterMan”.

PROBLEMS & OPPORTUNITIES TO BE ADDRESSED in WaterMan Project

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. Studies (e.g. by SMHI) predict 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 both to meet environmental goals with regard to outflows of nutrient & hazardous substances at a high level as well as to secure water supply at the same time.

Possible synergies between them, however, were hitherto not widely addressed despite obvious potentials: 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.

OBJECTIVES & SPECIFIC FOCUS OF THE PROJECT

WaterMan seeks to develop and promote new circular approaches to reduce outflows of nutrients & hazardous substances to surface water, groundwater and the Baltic Sea, which contribute to the climate-resilient water supply at the same time. The project will thereby focus on opportunities & perspectives that are not sufficiently addressed yet:

 Decreasing outflows of nutrients & hazardous substances and climate-resilient water supply are still tackled separately, in most cases. WaterMan strives for integrating these fields of action and approaches that address both challenges at the same go.

 Circular approaches do exist already in this field. However, they focus merely on the re-use of sludge & nutrients. WaterMan will go further and seeks to add to them ways to recirculate & re-use the effluent water itself.

 In the centre of attention will thereby be measures & techniques to re-use water from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and the retention of water before flowing into the Baltic Sea. Thus, fewer groundwater resources are needed and the water supply becomes more climate-resilient.

 The geographic focus will be on those parts of the BSR, where droughts & floods challenge water supply to a particular extent – and that hence may outstandingly benefit from re-circulation & re-use of water (e.g. coastal tourism hotspots = high drinking water demand in times potentially scarce supply, river deltas with intensive agriculture, coastal cities etc.).

 WaterMan addresses the local level. The primary target groups are municipalities & water companies. The aim is to develop concrete if possible low-cost approaches that they can implement with existing resources – so that replication is likely. A specific focus is on wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), many of which need reconstruction in the
near future to meet revised national EU Directive thresholds of nitrate & phosphate.

 Consequently, WaterMan does not remain on the level of studies & concepts but strives for developing approaches and solutions to a “ready-to-use” level by concrete pilot actions & investments.

On 13th January 2021 Umbrella 2.0 project partners: Euroregion Baltic, Unione of the Baltic Cities and Baltic Sea States Subregional Cooperation met together with the Swedish Institute representative to officially start the activities in the new project. Read below to get to know our project better and familiarise with the activities we plan to offer to our beneficiaries in the Baltic Sea Region.

UMBRELLA 2.0 – why we applied to SI for the support?

2021 will be a gap year for cross-border cooperation. The South Baltic Programme, a primary financial tool utilised by Euroregion Baltic to reach its scope, will launch the new programming period 2021-2027 only at the end of 2021. Only small project funds will be available. Hence, Euroregion Baltic realised that the Umbrella project’s success and capacity building process initiated in 2018 could not be stopped. For this reason, the so-called Umbrella 2.0 proposal was presented to the Swedish Institute as the natural consequence of Umbrella Project (SBP) and its willingness to become a recognised brand, active also on a broader Baltic Sea scale.

Therefore, Euroregion Baltic, together with UBC and BSSSC, submitted Umbrella 2.0- Boosting transnational cooperation capacities for multilevel actors in the Baltic Sea Region- that has been approved by the Swedish Institute in Nov 2020 and launched in January 2021.

AIM OF THE PROJECT

The project’s overarching goal is to increase awareness and knowledge of transnational cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region. More specifically, the project aims at initiating a process for the development of strong multi-actor and multilevel governance partnerships that can undertake cross-sectoral sustainable solutions while following the principles and objectives of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EU Green Deal and UN SDG.

The aims concerning the Baltic Region are :

– To raise awareness of opportunities and benefits of transnational and cross-border cooperation and increase regional stakeholders’ interest in it;

– To empower stakeholders to build strategic and long term-partnerships, support networking, and straighten community of practitioners in different sectors;

– To improve knowledge of the EU, its financial instruments and relevant strategies, with particular focus on the EUSBSR;

– To explore the opportunities and benefits of being part of EUSBSR and offer practical guidelines on how to engage in long-term;

– To help build competencies, i.e. knowledge and skills necessary to run projects with benefit to the Policy areas, and create specific networks of interest in different sectors in a cross-sectorial manner focusing on a shift and transformation by our beneficiaries (activating them for sustainable transnational cooperation).

Umbrella 2.0 builds on Umbrella project results. The Umbrella project was launched at the beginning of 2018. It resulted from the realisation that the South Baltic Programme (SBP) was hard to access for small organisations, mainly because of their insufficient institutional and financial capacities. SBP stakeholders in general and small local actors specifically still experience communication barriers, limited English language skills, and lack of competences and capabilities in project development and implementation. To address these challenges, the Umbrella project committed to developing know-how capacities for small local and regional actors and civil society organisations in the South Baltic Programme area to improve their cross-border cooperation participation. To achieve this goal, Umbrella implemented a significantly more comprehensive approach, determined by a strategic decision of the partnership to address different levels of capacity building processes – from a single institutional capacity of potential project partner, via micro-activities addressed to the micro organisations till strategic capacity building on the programme macro-level where we cooperated with EUSBSR HA Capacity coordinators (our Associated Partner).

Umbrella proved to be an optimal mediator among different stakeholders. Therefore, starting from the presumption that the EUSBSR and the local actors are completely detached one from the other, Umbrella 2.0 objective would be to develop know-how capacities for local organisations in cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region, harmonising local needs and actions and upper strategic lines.

While the local actors are focused on objectives in their local sphere of influence, the strategy provides guidelines that are not known at the local level. A bridge between local actors and the strategy needs to be set to enhance the interaction among all the governance levels to start a process that can facilitate the implementation of EUSBSR and other sustainable policies matching with EU Green Deal and SDGs. Umbrella 2.0 would act to mediate the communication between the strategies and the local level, raising awareness and providing practical knowledge and tools for implementation.