FIRE-IN has been designed to raise the security level of EU citizens by improving the national and European Fire & Rescue (F&R) capability development process. FIRE-IN addresses the concern that capability-driven research and innovation in this area needs much stronger guidance from practitioners and better exploitation of the technology potentially available for the discipline. We argue that this is to be achieved by practitioners more effectively coordinating on operational needs, on available research and innovation, on standardisation, and on test & demonstration and training. Further, we claim the need for the development of a common research culture that is to be achieved by better cooperation between practitioner and research/industry organisations. FIRE-IN addresses these objectives through four main areas of activity: (i) the identification and harmonisation of operational capability gaps based on the contribution provided by a significant and heterogeneous practitioner network, (ii) the identification of promising solutions to address those gaps through monitoring and screening of research outcomes and the continuous involvement of research and industry representatives, (iii) the definition of a F&R Strategic Research and Standardisation Agenda (SRSA) based on the previous elements as well as (iv) the development of a concept for more efficient use of test & demonstration and training facilities to support innovation and joint skill development. The overarching result of the project will be a proven process for organising F&R capability-driven research based on a wide practitioner and research and innovation network. The network will be linked at cross-domain and cross-border level and will feed harmonised operational requirements (or challenges) into national and EU capability development, i.e. research, innovation, procurement and standardisation programmes.

"The Baltic Sea Youth Platform (BSYP) is a systematic and overarching approach of youth involvement and real participation of young people in decision- and policy making in Baltic Sea Cooperation. The Baltic Sea Youth Platform is a project that strives to connect and empower youth in the most efficient and effective way by three main measures: 1. The first and key aim is to improve the political impact of youth on Baltic Sea policymaking. 2. The second focus will be on the development of tools for better knowledge transfer, as youth involvement in policy making is subject to high fluctuation in human resources. 3. Thirdly, the platform will also serve as a facilitator for various innovative projects relying on the interests and capacities of youth in a broad range of policy areas.Currently, a lot of organisations in the region are active in promoting young people’s engagement in many different sectors and policies affecting them, but a coordination action is missing, causing a lot of duplication and inefficiency, especially in promoting dialogue with policy-making platforms. The BSYP will enable these youth organisations to reach their fullest potential by empowering them to develop new ideas and pursue them jointly, under the guidance of the 2030 Agenda framework. The platform will engage youth at different levels, in the design of a common framework for action and shared Baltic Sea Region (BSR) identity. With its unique position as a trans-national organisation with access to regional decisionmakers, the Council of the Baltic Sea States offers an important basis to ensure the success of the youth platform. Furthermore, a project coordinator located in the CBSS Secretariat provides the necessary professional guidance for the project. The platform will consist of several physical meetings and of a virtual portal to engage more young people at their own locations. It is an innovative and dynamic way to create a flexible platform for all organisations working with youth to create synergies and facilitate inclusion of youth’s positions in policy-making in sectors of relevance for young people that would not be easily accessible for these organisations separately. The Youth Platform will work as an umbrella coordination mechanism for several youth organisations horizontally across sectors, also in connection to the different policy areas and horizontal actions of the EU Strategy for the BSR (EUSBSR). In addition, through the project young people will have a safe space to come up with concrete actions and project ideas that will allow for an increased participation of youth in the society; this will contribute to the development of sustainable policies for present and future generations, and the creation of expert future professionals who will have at heart the cohesion and stability of the Baltic Sea Region.The BSYP will produce several intellectual outputs usable for youth organisations and policy makers in the BSR and other macro-regions and intellectual outputs to promote the BSR and its regional identity. The main output will be a virtual platform for youth, organisations and decisionmakers to jointly use for their projects and to interact with each other. The platform will be built according to the needs of the young people in the region and the demands from policymakers. The platform enables youth to interact, cooperate and communicate across borders of any kinds and to virtually meet peers and decisionmakers in a save and productive environment. The BSYD will also produce a Baltic Sea Youth Power Box, with toolkits and guidelines for intergenerational dialogue, policymaking, youth engagement and advocacy especially tailored for youth in the region, but with possible transferability also to other regions.Furthermore, the platform will be the coordination for a common Baltic Sea Crocodile Festival. An intergenerational and educational festival promoting music and culture from all over the region. The festival will offer the chance for young people to present their ideas and to showcase the results to a broad audience. The platform will also produce a children's book ""Baltic Sea Belongs to Kids"" to promote the common values and aims already to following generation. Moreover, the youth platform participants will be able to engage in the production of artistic outcomes for the Baltic Sea Cultural Cities (BSCC).Besides all these innovative projects, the platform will also collectively produce an External Report to show what projects have been done and how the platform was established. As well as policy recommendations for decisionmakers in the region to emphasize the political perspective of young people and to ensure their positions and rationales are delivered to those who make the decisions about their future.The Baltic Sea Youth Platform ensures that there is nothing about us, without us!"

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.

The European Union's promise of prosperity and security is based on the principle of "unity in diversity" and the guarantee of fundamental freedoms, rights and democratic participation of its citizens. The vast majority of EU citizens share these values. At the same time, democracies are in crisis. Populist parties are fuelling fears and spreading the narrative that migration leads to a loss of identity. There is no doubt that migration always raises the question of identity and belonging. How do we organize integration and participation in such a way that cohesion is created despite diverse identities? The project "Identities - Migration - Democracy" (We-ID) is therefore concerned with the transformation of individual and collective identities, social and territorial cohesion and democracy under the conditions of demographic change, particularly with regard to migration and growing population diversity. We-ID follows an innovative research path by a) analysing the impact of migration on identities, belonging, cohesion and democracy, taking into account both the impact on host communities and the changes in the identities of migrants and their descendants, and b) elaborating the interrelationship between identities, cohesion, resilience and democracy. In addition to quantitative data analysis, we will use qualitative methods at the local level (e.g. pilot study in a border region, content analysis, case studies) to look for factors that strengthen resilient democratic communities. By consistently pursuing a transdisciplinary approach within our Policy, Advocacy and Research Lab (We-PARL) throughout the project, we will create a platform for mutual learning between different stakeholders from the European to the local level, while at the same time contributing to evidence-based and thoroughly discussed policy recommendations. In addition, based on our findings, we will develop materials such as toolboxes that can be used by practitioners and local actors (We-SCOUTS).