Consultations with stakeholders in the field of societal security in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) have identified an important gap to address: the need for closer cooperation between experts, practitioners and policy makers on the one side, and higher education institutions and academia on the other. Increased cooperation is needed to establish missing connections between policy, practice, education and research. NEEDS aims to strengthen the quality, attractiveness and scope of education in societal security through tackling the mismatches between the focus of education, and the knowledge needs of the field. The objective of NEEDS is to better prepare the next generation tasked to work in the field of societal security by boosting their educational experiences with the most relevant, field-specific and up-to-date knowledge and skills. This objective will be achieved through co-creation of educational materials in cross-sectoral, multi-level and transnational teams, where input for developing the materials are collected directly from those working practically in the field. Crises do not respect state borders; this means that an important part of the skills-set of experts includes the ability to work internationally. This skills-set does not just appear; skills need to be created by fostering flexibility, cultural sensitivity, and cooperation. The BSR countries have several societal security challenges in common due to their geographical proximity and functional interdependencies. The fact that neighbouring countries will provide support when a crisis strikes is yet another important motivation for improving transnational cooperation. The potential long-term benefit of NEEDS is safer and more secure societies in the BSR. This benefit can be achieved through achieving the following impacts: I. Education in societal security is relevant and matches the knowledge needs in the field, II. Students are well prepared for a professional career in the societal security field after they graduate – prepared to work across sectors and borders, and III. Cooperation between HEIs, practitioners and experts is a key component in societal security education.The results of NEEDS refer to two main areas: I.The establishment of a network and an interface for co-creation and collaboration, through the cooperation in the strategic partnership between experts, practitioners, policy makers, teachers and students at HEIs who are working with societal security issues, and; II.The development of an online module, the respective study material as well as a multi-method pedagogical approach.The project consortia for NEEDS, with its eight partners, is multidisciplinary, multi-level, and cross-sectoral and seven different countries are represented. The five HEIs will involve students, teachers, professors and programme coordinators in the project activities. Upon the project’s completion, a minimum of 80 students will have participated in the LTT activities, as well as teachers and professors from all the partner HEIs. The Union of the Baltic Cities, Safe Cities Commission and Hamburg Fire and Rescue Service will involve experts and practitioners in the project activities. The CBSS Secretariat will connect the project with existing networks of practitioners in the BSR and with the policy level. The LTT activities in the project will consist of several components where experts and practitioners work together with teachers and students from HEIs. The working methods will be workshops focusing on scenarios or cases, discussions aiming to define challenges and potential solutions; the working modus will be co-creation. Another part will be lectures where the strengths of each partner relevant for the topic will be utilised. The input for the IOs will be collected during the ISPs. The concrete activities in the IOs are the analysis and processing of the input from the ISPs, and to package the input into the tangible outputs: I. a glossary of terms for societal security education, II. guidelines and recommendations for societal security education, III. a case studies publication, IV. a joint pedagogical approach, V. an online course module, VI. NEEDS eLearning platform and online community, VII. a handbook for societal security education, and VIII. policy recommendations. The HEIs have previously worked together with other HEIs in course development; this is fruitful and will be utilised in NEEDS since the HEIs all have different strengths. NEEDS also allows for the evaluation of existing learning materials by experts and practitioners, which means that the materials can be strengthened before they are included in the final module. There will be a particular focus on communicating the methodology; the use of cross-sectoral, multi-level, transnational teams to create educational material and the fact that this process is responsive to the practical experiences. This is an important message that will be conveyed to the policy level.