Around the Baltic Sea with the Bioeconomy-related Projects

On 15^th of May 2025, coordinators of Policy Area Bioeconomy under EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region gathered 20 participants from Baltic Sea Region to the Webinar „Around the Baltic Sea with the Projects“.

Coordinators of PA Bioeconomy (Mr. Torfi Johannesson, Mrs. Dalia Miniataitė, Mrs. Vitalija Fokienė, Mr. Fredric Nilsson) presented the goals of the EU Strategy of the Baltic Sea Region, the activities of PA Bioeconomy and future plans.

One of the aims of the webinar were to share information and insights on financial instrument ‒ Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme and the Call for Small Scale Projects and encouraging the project generation.

The participants were glad to hear on good practices and experience from coordinators of ongoing and finished projects: Mrs. Leena Viitaharju representingUniversity of Helsinki Ruralia Institute, Finland shared on projects STRATKIT and STRATKIT+, and Mrs. Rebekka Kuechler representing Ministry of Economy and Innovation, Germany shared on project KISMET.

Interesting that both projects had approach to sustainable food culture and knowledge sharing. Mrs. Leena Viitaharju: institutional, knowledge, or even psychological barriers still hinder the shift towards healthy and sustainable public catering. The Interreg StratKIT+ project expanded the Sustainable Public Meal Toolkit and built a strong transnational community to support public authorities, meal providers and others in implementing green catering procurement in schools, hospitals, and other public institutions.

Mrs. Rebekka Kuechler: with KISMET, we change our ‘destiny’ and transform the current unfavourable food systems in cities and regions around the Baltic Sea to sustainability. The project tackles the challenge that local and regional authorities often lack capacity, require new impulses or need innovative solutions for realising more circular and sustainable food environments.

Participants were encouraged to take over the new projects as they give positive changes both for local communities and for the entire Baltic Sea Region. Webinar gave the opportunity for coordinators of PA Bioeconomy to meet potential project developers, hear their concerns and learn about the challenges they face.

Around the Baltic Sea with the Bioeconomy-related Projects

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