Join “Diet for a Green Planet” – an International online course
On 27th April Umbrella 2.0 project will organise an Awareness Raising Event for all Baltic Sea stakeholders interested in current “hot” topics for transnational cooperation. As one of the speakers, we invited Hans von Essen, Senior Advisor from BERAS International Foundation from Sweden, who will introduce their project “Diet for a Green Planet” to our participants ( https://stensund.se/utbildningar/diet-for-a-green-planet/ ) . If you wish to join our event click here: https://www.eurobalt.org/agenda-for-the-umbrella-2-0-awareness-raising-event/
Become a change leader for sustainable food!
Join our on-line course Diet for a green planet – Managing transformation in the local food system.
15 ECTS part-time, online course in English
Starts 20 May 2021 – 6 May 2022
In cooperation with BERAS International, and hosted by Novia University of Applied Sciences
Understanding Sustainability in the Food System – from Global Vision to Local Reality. (May until September 2021)
Interventions to support Healthy and Sustainable Food and to minimize Waste (September until December 2021)
Project Development – Managing Transformation in the Local Food System. (January until April 2022)
Registration is now open!
The course registration is now open. Register here to ensure a place in the course. The course can accept a maximum of 50 students, on a first come first-served basis. The minimum required number of students is 20. If you run into problems with the registration or have questions about how to register please contact Anita Kronqvist (anita.kronqvist@novia.fi)
Who should attend?
The course is planned so that persons who hold a job or are otherwise occupied on a daily basis can attend. Each week equals a working load of 10-12 hours for the students and the course runs for a year.
Are you working in the food system or are you interested in sustainability issues or transformative leadership? This is a course for you! You might be active in some of the following sectors;
Professionals working in the food system – from farm to fork
Primary producers
Sustainability developers, planners
Processing – artesan food producers
Public food, tender
Catering, restaurants
Aims of the programme
“..to form an understanding of the food system from farm to fork and how the food system is connected to climate change mitigation, eutrophication, biodiversity, human health, and rural development.”
“..to empower individuals who are active in the food system to become change agents through a holistic understanding of the food system.”
“..to develop skills in leadership and interventions for enhanced sustainability that can be applied in professional work in production, public food, tender, catering and restaurants.”
Want to know more about Diet for a Green Planet? Learn more about the project DGP here!
The past year was the final and firmly the busiest year for the Interreg
South Baltic Interconnect project which started in June 2017. 2020 began with
some great news from one of the project partners, Innobaltica (Poland), who
announced an open tender for the implementation of FALA – integrated ticket for
the Pomorskie Region – a charges
collecting system for transportation in collective passenger transport and a
consistent passenger information system, standard for both coordinators and
carriers.
On February 17th the Interconnect project was presented on a hearing
regarding the revision of the TEN-T regulation held by Ministry of Infrastructure in Sweden. During the
conference, the Interconnect project Manager Mr Mattias Andersson, representing
Region Blekinge, had an opportunity to emphasise the importance of cross-border
public transport. The collaboration between Blekinge and Pomorskie Region in
the Interconnect project was set as a good example where regions collaborate
with private players, in this case, Stena Line, to find new ticket solutions.
In March 2020, the South Baltic success story series, developed within
ERB’s Umbrella project, noted the Interconnect project as an example of Interreg South
Baltic Programme success story, offering an understanding of the best practices
and the success of the project’s results and outcomes.
On March 11th 2020, a first partnership meeting was held in Karlskrona,
Sweden. Due to the travel restrictions following the Covid -19 pandemic, only ten
persons participated in Region Blekinge office, and two persons experienced
online. During this meeting, partners discussed the multigovernance
co-operation model for public transport in the South Baltic area, the main
outputs of the project, and the project’s final conference details. The
partnership has submitted a request for changes where additional activities were
mentioned and a prolongation of the implementation period of 6 months until the
end of November 2020. Furthermore, a decision was made to postpone the final
conference to preliminary October 1st 2020, instead of May 7th and
most likely to hold it online.
At the turn of March and April 2020, Joint Secretariat agreed on the project’s
prolongation by six months while Monitoring Committee approved all requests for
changes.
With the begging of June, The Hanseatic Institute for Entrepreneurship and
Regional Development at the University of Rostock (HIE-RO) announced it
is about to deliver an Indicator-based self-evaluation tool in Excel for
public transport planners within the task 4.2 “Implementing a multi-stakeholder
planning model for public transport services”. The tool’s main objective
is to develop an easy-to-use self-evaluation (or monitoring) indicator tool in
Excel that can be used by public transport planners to evaluate the performance
of the local and regional (public) transport system.
Between 13th
and 26th of July, a joint Danish-German exhibition called
“ekspeditioNORD” took place, as part of the German-Danish year of
cultural friendship. The event was co-financed by the Interconnect project on the
principle of supporting co-operation and cross – border interconnections
between local governments and public administrations and civil societies with a
specific focus on educational institutions and schools, culture and tourism
organisations and business co-operations.
In August Mr
Mattias Andersson, Interconnect Project leader was invited by Mukran Port
in Germany to participate in ‘South Baltic Transport
Loops’ project partnership meeting, where he had a chance to speak
about the findings the Interconnect project and discuss the cross-project
exchange.
In August,
the Polish Ministry of Development Fund and Regional Policy has chosen the Interconnect
Project to be promoted as one of the best projects of Interreg South Baltic
Programme 2014-2020. Therefore, a photo session was organised to present the
main goals and achievements of Interconnect Project. The photo session results
were presented in December 2020 in a publication on “15 years of Interreg
programs in Poland”.
Summer period ended up with
information that the first Interconnect scientific paper on ‘PT Data for multi-stakeholder planning and monitoring excel tool for
public transport services’ was accepted for publication at the
CSTFM-conference in Madrid October 2020. The paper resulted from WP 3.5 and
related to a process and solutions for sustainable cross-border and regional
public transport.
With the beginning of
September, intensive preparations for the upcoming Final Conference started.
The invitation and conference agenda sent to more than 300 people and an
intensive promoting campaign in social media began.
On September 8th, Mr
Mattias Andersson attended the ERB Executive Board meeting. He presented the
idea of establishing a new task force within ERB, concentrated on sustainable
transport issues and related to the Interconnect project’s outputs.
On September
17th, the Project partner Mr Frede Danborg from Guldborgsund Kommune was
invited to become one of the pannelists during the Interreg South Baltic
Programme’s Annual Event celebrating
30 years of Interreg South Baltic. Mr Danborg had a chance to present the Interconnect
project, its objectives and challenges throughout projects lifetime, and
opportunities it has created to impact public transport in small Baltic Sea regions.
On October
1st 2020, the Interconnect Final Conference titled ‘Future of Public Transport
– Trends, Tools, Governance’ was held online via Hop.in the platform. Nearly 100 participants
from 14 countries joined the conference to
take part in many valuable lectures on sustainable
transport, cross-border passenger transport and new solutions
in public transport given by experts
from EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, The Hanseatic Institute
for Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Innobaltica, Blekinge Institute of Technology and Interreg South Baltic. The participants also had a chance to hear panellists
from ESPON Programme, Interact Programme, Region
Blekinge and Euroregion Baltic discussing and
exchanging experience on various multilevel governance options.
In November, as a
result of several workshops and discussions among project partners and experts
in the transport sector, a Catalogue of Solutions for Sustainable Cross-Border
and Regional Public Transport was finally developed and published on the
project website.
The publication was
shortly followed by the Interconnect Final Report on Guidelines on
multilevel governance for Public Transport in the South Baltic Area published
on November 25th 2020.
On November 30th 2020,
partners from Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, and Viimsi
Municipality in Estonia met for the last time, to sum up, the Interconnect
project results. After 42 months of an exciting and fruitful co-operation, the
Interconnect project partners from 6 EU countries met for the last time to
finalise their work results achieved within the project. During the final
meeting, the project partners had a chance, to sum up, their previous work
& results within the project and share their experience and ideas for
further co-operation. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the meeting was held
online. All the partners expressed their hopes to continue cooperating to
support the development of sustainable public transport, mobility and
connectivity in South Baltic Area.
Finally on December 3rd 2020 during the final ERB Executive Board meeting in 2020 the Board members all agreed to establish another task force in the Euroregion Baltic – Mobility Core Group, which will consist of partners from the Interconnect project, as well as contact persons and experts from the ERB member organisations.
We present here the article from the Interreg South Baltic Programme website prepare for the 30th anniversary of the Interreg.
In 2020 we celebrate 30 years of Interreg. On this occasion, we asked representatives of the Interreg South Baltic Programme projects to share their experiences about the Interreg funds and the cross-border cooperation.
Frede Danborg, the International Coordinator in Guldborgsund Municipality, Denmark, and the project manager for the Interconnect project shares his experience from the perspective of the project’s partner in INTERCONNECT project. Let’s talk about Interreg!
What impact has Interconnect had on Guldborgsund Municipality?
Interconnect has both worked to improve public transport between Rostock, Germany and Guldborgsund Municipality, Denmark.
Interconnect has supported a joint local development and provided exciting opportunities to travel across the Baltic Sea between the two project partners.
Interconnect made it easier to buy the InterCombi ticket online. This is a joint ticket that covers both buses and ferries and makes it easier to travel across the Baltic Sea.
Interconnect has assisted promoting the summer bus between Gedser and Marielyst Tourism Resort and is especially aimed at international tourists crossing the Baltic Sea.
Interconnect has prepared a catalogue of new mobility solutions for the residents of our rural areas so that it will be easier to travel to our main city Nykøbing, which is on the travel route to Rostock and Berlin.
Interconnect has completed more than 10 exchanges within education, culture and tourism as well as business. It has involved more than 150 people from Guldborgsund who have visited Rostock and more than 150 people from Rostock who have visited Guldborgsund.
I believe that this cooperation between local associations, institutions and authorities is an important part of a transport project.
Why is it necessary for International Cooperation to achieve those results?
When it comes to cross-border public transport and common local development as in Interconnect, then it can only happen through international cooperation.
The cooperation with Rostock regarding better transport connections and cooperation for joint development is high on our agenda both in Rostock and here in Guldborgsund Municipality.
But still, the international project is needed to make it actually happen! A joint project is a signal and a message to our organisations and to the surroundings that we prioritise these activities. And it is a starting shoot from our management to implement this cooperation.
What role do you think Interreg projects should have in Denmark and Europe in the coming years?
Interreg projects should develop knowledge and relationships between neighbouring countries and neighbouring regions. And they must involve both local and regional authorities, institutions and associations.
Interreg projects should be broad and reflect local and regional development agendas.
They do not have to be research projects or follow narrow specific business branches or professional themes.
For such purposes, you have already in place the Structural Funds, Horizon 2020 and the thematic programmes based in Brussels.
As a very concrete proposal, Interreg projects could provide opportunities for cooperation in the field of health. Not to develop cancer treatment or COVID-19 vaccine, but so that health and care staff in e.g. municipalities could develop new forms of work and methods within public health and prevention and elderly care.
Among all local and regional authorities, these tasks require great efforts and large budgets. I believe that international cooperation in these areas can change a lot.
What European challenges are particularly important to address in international cooperation?
There are many common European challenges that need international cooperation. Therefore, it is good that the EU has a very wide range of different development and support programmes.
In Interconnect Interreg South Baltic project, we support the idea of sustainable public transport in the South Baltic Sea. See how easy & pleasurable a journey can be in our coproduction video clip, promoting the #InterCombiTicket connection between Rostock and Nykøbing Falster
Are you interested in renewing and innovating the field of Bioeconomy and taking part in an intergenerational dialogue?
An entirely unique leadership training programme to tackle the challenges of youth participation in the Bioeconomy sector, for participants from the Baltic Sea Region.
BLP Youth addresses the need to better integrate younger generations into the field of Bioeconomy. Youth (up to 30 years of age) are vital for renewing and innovating the sector, which is necessary in the transition from a fossil based to a bio based society/economy, but today necessary links and methods for attracting and involving youth are lacking.
The programme is targeting representatives from youth organisations as well as representatives from organisations working with Bioeconomy. We are looking forward to receiving applications from Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Iceland, as well as the German states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg.
The application period is open until 22nd August. For detailed information check thewebsite of the Swedish Instituteor follow the link to submit your application. In case of questions, please contact Gabor Schneider at:gabor.schneider@si.se, Tel: +46-8-453 78 59, Mobile: +46-732-318521.
The European Sustainable Development Network (ESDN), an informal network of national policy-makers working on sustainable development policies and strategies and other sustainable development experts, has just published a report of the 15th ESDN Workshop that took place in Berlin, Germany on October 16 – 17, 2017.
On 16th December 2016 a partnership led by Region Blekinge submitted a joint project to break the car dependence trend in the South Baltic area. (more…)
Baltic Sea Future is a two-day conference in Stockholm held on the 6-7 March 2017 organised for Baltic Sea municipalities by the City of Stockholm and Stockholm University. (more…)
The EU fisheries ministers have agreed on next year’s fishing limits (TACs) for ten fish stocks of the Baltic Sea. These TACs were the first to be set in accordance with the long-term management plan for the Baltic basin that had recently been adopted by the Council and the European Parliament. (more…)
