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Innovative societies Water-smart societies Climate-neutral societies 

Interreg makes
a difference!

Explore how people in the Baltic Sea region have been benefitting
from our projects.

#MadeWithInterreg solutions for

Cleaner waters

Cleaner waters thanks to viable monitoring system, new methods for removing micropollutants from wastewater and sharing knowledge

What are we doing?

Coordinated actions are the key to cleaning Baltic Sea waters efficiently. Interreg projects that bring people together across sectors and countries stand behind many of them. Not only do they introduce new systemic methods to clean wastewater, but also ensure the spread of knowledge of those methods in the region. Trust in project recommendations directly translates into new policies and investments. In a long run, cooperation in projects exceeds original partnerships and builds grounds for new initiatives and actions to respond to arising challenges.

Examples of #MadeWithInterreg solutions:
  • a platform collecting best practices in smart water operations
  • a risk assessment system to monitor concentrations of micropollutants
  • novel methods to clean wastewater from micropollutants, e.g. pharmaceuticals
  • new technologies to reduce phosphorus losses
  • enhanced water treatment to improve water quality in lakes

 

What we’ve achieved so far? 

The Baltic Sea is one of the most heavily eutrophicated seas in the world. Interreg projects helped improve wastewater treatment, which is one of the factors influencing eutrophication. At the beginning of the 2000s, more than 20 cities collected best practices in water management and shared them with other city administrations around the Baltic Sea region. In 2009-2013, projects showcased that it was possible to reduce discharges of nutrients from wastewater treatment facilities to the level set in the Baltic Sea Action Plan of HELCOM. The HELCOM Action Plan targets were stricter than the EU requirement.

In 2016-2021, projects in cities and villages focused on improving the treatment of wastewater from residents and industries. Partners in projects tested new technologies that increased nutrient removal and reduced energy consumption in cities such as Daugavpils, Gdańsk, Tartu, Jūrmala, Kaunas, and Grevesmühlen. Rural municipalities benefitted from solutions like septic tanks and soil infiltration in Kolgaküla, Gennarby, Ainaži, and Leitgiriai. In other projects, partners tested the pre-treatment of wastewater at poultry, meat, and dairy factories in Leszno, Doruchów, Põltsamaa, and Jelgava. Following this joint work, the partners synthesised more than a hundred examples of smart water operations. Using this knowledge, they helped develop the new Baltic Sea Regional Nutrient Recycling Strategy of HELCOM, and revise the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan. These two strategic documents help achieve a healthy state of the Baltic Sea.

 

Ongoing projects

The ongoing projects explore new methods to clean wastewater more efficiently and better monitor concentrations of harmful substances and micropollutants in water environments. They address various stages of water management, starting from pollution prevention at its source, extending to robust monitoring and risk assessment practices, and culminating in the adoption of advanced wastewater treatment technologies. The projects aim to influence policy-making processes and implement practical measures for long-term improvements.

 

Supporting the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region 

Our projects play a vital role in achieving the ambitious goals of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) to save the Baltic Sea. In collaboration with the coordinators of the EUSBSR policy areas Nutri, Bioeconomy, Hazards, and Tourism, our projects make water and wastewater management more efficient and less resource-intensive in cities, rural areas, and tourist destinations. Together, our projects and the EUSBSR coordinators drive changes in water-related policies in our region, ensuring that the outcomes of our projects are integrated into legislation and continue to contribute to clearer, cleaner waters in the region.

 

Explore project solutions in more detail:

EMPEREST

Eliminating Micro-Pollutants from Effluents for REuse STrategies
The project EMPEREST tests advanced treatment technology that helps water utilities and companies better remove organic micropollutants such as PFAS or pharmaceuticals from wastewater.
Read more about the project

APRIORA

Improved risk assessment for strategic water management to reduce micro-pollutant emissions in the Baltic Sea Region
In the project APRIORA, environmental protection agencies and wastewater treatment plants get equipped with a GIS-based risk assessment system to monitor and model concentrations of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in order to improve water management and reduce emissions.
Read more about the project

BEACON

Application of biological effects methods in monitoring and assessment of contaminants in the Baltic Sea
In the project BEACON, public authorities and governmental organisations develop harmonised methods to assess contamination in the Baltic Sea waters, sediment and biota.
Read more about the project

AdvIQwater

Improving quality of BSR waters by advanced treatment processes
The project AdvIQwater tests photocatalysis, fungal treatment and biofilms methods to efficiently clean wastewaters from pharmaceuticals.
Read more about the project

NonHazCity 3

Reducing hazardous substances in construction to safeguard the aquatic environment, protect human health and achieve more sustainable buildings
The project NonHazCity 3 helps municipalities, entrepreneurs and individuals construct and renovate buildings with tox-free materials in order to protect health and the environment.
Read more about the project

TRUST ALUM

Building trust in target groups for ALUM treatment - an effective, yet misunderstood method for water quality improvement
The project TRUST ALUM helps public authorities in the Baltic countries make better use of ALUM water treatment and improve water quality in lakes.
Read more about the project

MUNIMAP

Baltic Sea Munitions Remediation Roadmap
The project MUNIMAP develops a legal and administrative framework for public authorities to initiate joint remediation of dumped munitions from the Baltic Sea and Skagerrak, which pose threats to the marine ecosystem and hinder the maritime economy.
Read more about the project

CoCoBLog

Competent and Competitive Baltic Logistics
The project addresses a gap between the needed and existing logistics skills/competences and, consequently, strengthens the institutional capacities of different companies executing logistics duties within the Baltic Sea region. The project works towards upgrading logistics skills and competences of people involved in logistics and, in this way, improving an overall logistics performance in the Baltic Sea region and reducing differences between the different countries.
Read more about the project

HyTruck

Developing a transnational network of hydrogen refuelling stations for trucks
The project HyTruck helps public authorities design a network of hydrogen refuelling stations for large trucks, bringing the region closer to zero–emissions in road freight transport.
Read more about the project

ChemClimCircle

Integrating criteria for chemicals, climate and circularity in procurement processes
The project ChemClimCircle equips municipalities with training modules to apply circular procurement and, by this, to use non-toxic and climate-neutral products.
Read more about the project

AREA 21

Baltic Smart City Areas for the 21st century
The Interreg project AREA21 involved local and regional public authorities, energy providers, public property owners and citizens from six countries and improved cooperative planning processes by applying ICT-based tools for visualisation of energy consumption and upscaling good practices in energy saving to a district level.
Read more about the project

OIL SPILL

Enhancing Oil Spill Response Capability in the Baltic Sea Region
The project OIL SPILL helped public authorities, NGOs and voluntary organisations improve oil spill response and make it faster, better coordinated, and more efficient.
Read more about the project

CM

Cross Motion
The Interreg project CM helped audio-visual and videogame industry boost their businesses and enter new markets by teaming them up with traditional sectors of education, tourism and healthcare, and innovating their products with audio-visual content.
Read more about the project

HAZARD

Mitigating the effects of emergencies in Baltic Sea Region ports
The Interreg project HAZARD made firefighters, coastguards, policemen and others involved in rescue operations in ports around the Baltic Sea more fit to save people and goods when accidents happen: Large scale exercises helped sea port authorities and rescue services to improve their structures and procedures to be better prepared for the next accident to come.
Read more about the project

BEST

Better Efficiency for Industrial Sewage Treatment
The project BEST enhanced collaboration among local water utilities, wastewater treatment plants, industrial companies, and local environmental authorities to ensure more efficient management of industrial sewage in the Baltic Sea region and ultimately protect the environment.
Read more about the project

GrePPP

Green Public Procurement of Pharmaceuticals for the Baltic Sea Region
Pharmaceutical emissions to the environment are a major concern in the Baltic Sea region and beyond. GrePPP works towards a sustainable public procurement of pharmaceuticals to protect the aquatic environment in areas where pharmaceuticals are produced. The aim of the project is to develop and test criteria and tools for sustainable public procurement applicable to the aquatic environment. This shall incentivise more sustainable production methods, and, consequently, reduce harmful emissions.
Read more about the project

Energy Circle

Promoting circular approaches for energy independency in business and communities.
The project EnergyCircle helps public authorities and business support organisations develop long-term plans and transition towards circular energy independence, ensuring energy security in the region.
Read more about the project

VillageWaters

Water emissions and their reduction in village communities – villages in Baltic Sea Region as pilots
The Interreg project Village Waters produced comprehensive knowledge about technical solutions for cleaning waste water in the countryside and successfully made it available to municipal officials, home owners and companies - now they can improve the waste water treatment and comply with EU directives also where large waste water treatment facilities are missing.
Read more about the project

BSR Mental Health

Baltic Sea Mental Health Platform
The BSR Mental Health project platform outlines a modern healthcare system for the region, helping public authorities integrate non-clinical cultural, artistic, and physical activities to enhance mental and social well-being for people of all ages. BSR Mental Health consolidates outcomes from 13 EU projects.
Read more about the project

Baltic Slurry Acidi.

Reducing nitrogen loss from livestock production by promoting the use of slurry acidification techniques in the Baltic Sea Region
In the Interreg project Baltic Slurry Acidification, farmers around the Baltic Sea tested the technology of treating animal manure with acid to reduce ammonia emissions harmful to people and the environment, and to gain valuable fertilisers for their crops instead.
Read more about the project

cities.multimodal

Cities.multimodal – urban transport system in transition towards low carbon mobility
The Interreg project cities.multimodal presented environmentally friendly alternatives to driving, enhanced sustainable urban mobility planning for multimodal transport in ten cities and introduced six mobility points and smartphone-based travel planning.
Read more about the project

Circular FoodShift

Circular FoodShift in the Baltic countries
The project Circular FoodShift helps authorities in rural and peri-urban municipalities transform food models with less food waste at schools and gastronomy and new businesses upcycling food and food waste.
Read more about the project

Healthy Boost

Urban Labs for Better Health for All in the Baltic Sea Region - boosting cross-sectoral cooperation for health and wellbeing in the cities
Healthy Boost helped local authorities to enhance health and well-being of citizens through cross- sectoral cooperation.
Read more about the project

NonHazCity 2

Capitalizing key elements of NonHazCity: empowering private and professional users for better risk management and use reduction of chemical products in their cities
The Interreg project NonHazCity 2 built municipalities’ capacity in chemicals management and campaigned on the dangers of plastics in our everyday life.
Read more about the project

OSIRIS

Supporting the Smart Specialization Approach in the Silver Economy to Increase Regional Innovation Capacity and Sustainable Growth
OSIRIS helped to accelerate the development and market uptake of innovative products and services for the elder people.
Read more about the project

EcoDesign Circle 4.0

EcoDesign Circle 4.0
EcoDesign Circle 4.0 helped design centers, industrial designers and companies to integrate services and digital tools in development of solutions.
Read more about the project

Circ@Home

Resilience by circularity and sharing culture at households as precondition for climate-neutral cities: "Circ-in-Town = Circ@Home + Circular services"
The project Circ@Home drives urban circularity by helping households, municipalities, and companies adopt sustainable practices and reduce their environmental impact.
Read more about the project

BSN_powerhouse

Baltic Science Network - A Science Powerhouse
The Interreg project BSN_powerhouse enabled researchers, research infrastructures, higher education institutions to improve transnational exchange and capitalise on research capacity.
Read more about the project

RESTinBSR

Unlocking transformative ecotourism potential for sustainable regional development
RESTinBSR is aimed at unlocking the potential of an innovative form of ecotourism - transformative ecotourism - by involving into the ecotourism development new groups of actors, including rural entrepreneurs, local communities, NGOs and social movements dealing with ecology. The project seeks to use transnational learning and collaboration for developing a set of innovative tools for the promotion of transformative ecotourism businesses in the Baltic Sea region's peripheral areas.
Read more about the project

BSR Cultural Pearls

Baltic Sea Region Cultural Pearls for more resilient Cities and Regions
The project BSR Cultural Pearls helps smaller cities and regions be more attractive to live in and improve their quality of life by engaging people in cultural activities and developing a stronger sense of commonship.
Read more about the project

MARA

Mobility and Accessibility in Rural Areas - New approaches for developing mobility concepts in remote areas
The project MARA improved accessibility and mobility for residents and tourists in remote touristic areas of the Baltic Sea region.
Read more about the project

Change(K)now!

Change(K)now! – A mindset change from single-use to circular or multiple-use of food delivery systems in cities of the BSR
The Change(K)now! project helps municipalities reduce single-use food packaging in food delivery and catering systems, and build social acceptance among companies and people for circular reuse of food packaging.
Read more about the project

Smart-up BSR

Improving smart specialisation implementation of the Baltic Sea Region through orchestrating innovation hubs
The Interreg project Smart-up BSR helped regions in eight countries across the Baltic Sea to implement smart specialisation strategies and develop their strengths in healthy ageing, climate change, circular economy and smart city.
Read more about the project

NextCare

NextCare @ Home: Implementing AI Solutions within Integrated Healthcare in Rural Areas
The project NextCare brings together hospitals, local authorities, patient organisations across the Baltic Sea region to help rural healthcare systems safely implement AI-supported home care solutions, improving access to healthcare, patient wellbeing and the resilience of health services.
Read more about the project

Care@Home

Outpatient care and integrated day care provided by housing companies - affordable arrangements and solutions in home care services for elderly people
The ageing population is a major social, economic and cultural challenge in every civil society. As many elderly would like to continue to live independently and self-determined in their current environment, an increasing number of older people need to receive care services at home. The Care@Home project aims to provide a solution for this challenge by showing how a cooperation between professional care service providers and housing companies will lead to mutual benefits of all parties involved.
Read more about the project

STM BALT SAFE

Safety of Navigation in the Baltic Sea by Sea Traffic Management
The STM BALT SAFE project introduced new digital services onboard and onshore that improve the speed and accuracy of ship-shore information exchange.
Read more about the project

UROSCO

Update and Recalculation of national oil spill contingency plans in the Baltic Sea
Read more about the project

BREC

Bridging the gap between research and education for the circular bioeconomy
The project BREC connects agricultural schools, authorities and researchers to spread circular agricultural practices among practitioners and test technologies driving circular bioeconomy.
Read more about the project

BSR Stars S3

Stimulating smart specialization ecosystem through engaging SMEs in open innovation processes
Through the project BSR Stars S3, business support organisations, public authorities and policy makers in several regions around the Baltic Sea know more about how to turn their smart specialisation strategies for advancing bio and circular economies into action.
Read more about the project

POWER UP

Towards a more efficient organisation of the prosumer construct in energy communities
Citizens, or rather groups of private individuals, have a high potential to contribute to decentralising the production of energy - but their joint role as energy consumers and producers, or ‘prosumers’, is complex. The prosumer construct is under-researched and inefficient. This limits its full potential and requires additional support mechanisms and guidance. POWER UP attempts to offer an inclusive option for all consumers to have a direct stake in producing, consuming or sharing energy through efficient organization at a local level.
Read more about the project

Solutions stay with the people: listen to our #InterregVoices

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© UBC SCC/Mariia Andreeva

Thanks to Interreg (...), we created momentum for essential aspects of sustainable water management connected to climate change, for example improving the wastewater and storm water management, reducing water pollution, and increasing the application of circular economy principles. [IWAMA; BSR Water]

 

 

 

Agnieszka Ilola 

Head of Secretariat, Union of the Baltic Cities, Sustainable Cities Commission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© Dmitry Frank-Kamenetsky

I can name a large number of examples of project outputs directly integrated into the regional policy framework. The first one is the recommendation on sludge handling. It was largely based on the PURE project. What’s more, the technologies tested in the project PURE to treat wastewater are in regular use now.

 

 

 

Dmitry Frank-Kamenetsky

 Special Advisor to HELCOM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© City of Turku

Thanks to Interreg projects, we have improved our public services for our citizens. Our water treatment facility has been involved in benchmarking water management processes and our water management processes have continuously been improving. Now, we have even better water quality and managed to keep the price of our water services at a moderate level.

Minna Arve

Mayor of Turku, Finland

#MadeWithInterreg solutions by topic

Agriculture

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Cleaner waters

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Energy efficiency

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Fewer hazards

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Health &
well-being

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Healthy & sustainable
food

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