The 2021 Annual Event of the Interreg 2 Seas Programme was organised virtually on the 21st of September.
It gathered over 200 members of the 2 Seas community on a Virtual Voyage throughout the Programme area.
The purpose of this voyage was to better understand how Interreg 2 Seas cooperation already brought already high benefits changes the lives of many in the territories. The 2 Seas projects address a wide range of target groups which benefit from the projects’ achievements, be it young children to elderly, students to scientists, policy advisors to entrepreneurs. More than 200 digital tourists were taken to different regions in England, France, The Netherlands and Belgium and introduced to a multitude of positive outcomes issued derived from cross-border cooperation.
The voyage has been built around six themes representing the common threads of the benefits for the 2 Seas territories.
Through 18 stories, the event managed to demonstrate how projects have been contributing to this overall objective, each in their individual way, through the delivery of outputs which lead to change for the 2 Seas area and its citizens.
After the Annual Event, the six thematic journeys have been made available as individual videos. These can be accessed in this Youtube playlist.
The voyage is made out of 6 threads, therefore there are 6 voyage videos through the 2 Seas territories.
Each voyage contains virtual visits to 3 different project locations where the real benefits for the territories are presented through a short video.
The first journey is linked to the topic of improved knowledge and products. In this video PlastiCity, CoBRA and DERMA representatives explain how their projects contribute to this topic through, for instance, the sustainable collection of lost plastics, the use of robots for cancer treatment and the invention of smart dressings for a better treatment of wounds.
A second travel highlighted some examples of increased skills. Here project representatives from Melle (BE), Breda (NL) and Feock (UK) explain the manners in which Valgorize, CBCI and HAIRE aim at strengthening people’s skills and competences; they do so by, for instance, providing training to increase knowledge on algae to be integrated into food products, delivering students customised lectures and practical workshops on circular bio-based assignments, and offering more than 150 volunteers trainings to be able to offer help and support to older members of their communities.
The following journey focused on carbon savings. Click here to hear first about project PECS efforts brought to the beautiful marina of Hellevoetsluis in the Netherlands, next how TRIPLE-A principles can help cities in reducing the carbon footprints of households in Ostend and finally discover the innovative bottom-up approach SHINE project employed to reduce carbon emissions in residential dwellings approach in Hastings.
Our fourth trip looked at how three of our projects take up actions to bring about policy changes. In this video you can hear a SUMARIS project partner explaining their efforts to improve fisheries regulations on skates and rays by providing scientific and species-specific driven data, then how PROWATER managed to catch policy makers’ attention when implementing nature-based solutions to increase natural resilience against droughts, and finally, a SPEED observer partner emphasizes emphasizing the foreseen durability of the project’s work on creating an ecosystem of smart ports by involving a wide range of actors.
The fifth travel showcased three stories on improved services, to be watched here. The first leg of the trip takes you to Kortrijk where the CASCADE project aims to improve the quality of life for people living with dementia. The trip then continues to Mechelen where you can see how flexible childcare changes the lives of vulnerable families. The third and last step comes from Canterbury, where the EDUCAT project improves electric wheelchairs together with end-users (disabled/elderly people, caregivers), health professionals, researchers and companies.
At the end of the Voyage, the digital tourists enjoyed a last trip to Wimereux, Somerset and Felixstowe where projects WRC, TRIPLE C, and FRESH4Cs have shown remarkable cooperation efforts aiming to improve the climate resilience of the 2 Seas area. The video is available here and you can find out about the 75 spots-parking lot draining pavements made out of scallop’s shells in Wimereux together with the measures undertaken in Somerset to prevent flooding and increase awareness in their communities, and finally the 6 farming businesses in Suffolk coming together to develop joint actions against the shortage of water supplies.
Additionally, the entire Voyage is available to be watched here; virtual journeys are followed by debriefings carried out by different members of the 2 Seas community to comment on each of the voyage thematics and further projects achievements.
