Seed Money is funding provided by Interreg Baltic Sea Region to support the preparation of projects in line with the Action Plan of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. With Seed Money support, projects can be prepared for any funding source available in the region.
The Seed Money application procedure consists of two steps. In step one, an applicant submits a draft application to Policy Area and Horizontal Action Coordinators who preselect draft applications (typically six weeks after submission). In step two, authors of preselected draft applications are invited to submit full applications to the Managing Authority/Joint Secretariat (typically within six-eight weeks after preselection). The Monitoring Committee selects Seed Money projects for funding typically three months after submission.
Our application is the result of work undergoing in Water Core Group since May 2019. ECG submitted the concept note in Dec 2019 that was positively assessed by PA NUTRI Coordinators and we were invited to submit the full application. On 23rd March we have sent the file and we await the information from the JS. The results are expected in June 2020.
What is the project about?
Reducing the outflows of nutrients & hazardous substances to surface water, groundwater and the Baltic Sea, in particular, is the main concern of water management in the BSR and will remain its foremost task in the future. At the same time, the effects of climate change pose new challenges to water supply: Droughts limit in certain periods the quantity of water for various uses (e.g. drinking water, agriculture). Floods impair the quality of drinking water – and thus indirectly its quantity, too. SMHI has predicted that problems linked to water shortage will become even more severe in the future.
The two mentioned tasks cannot be addressed as a question of either/or. The ambition must be to meet environmental goals at a high level and to secure water supply. Possible synergies between them, however,
were hitherto not widely addressed: If effluent water is retained, re-circulated & re-used, water supply will not only be more secure & climate-resilient. At the same go, this will be an effective way to reduce outflows of nutrients & hazardous substances.
WaterMan develops and promotes circular approaches to reduce outflows of nutrients & hazardous substances to surface water, groundwater and the Baltic Sea in particular, which at the same time contribute to the climate-resilient water supply. Its centre of attention is measures & techniques to re-use water from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and the retention of water before flowing into the Baltic Sea. Thus, less
groundwater resources will be needed for drinking water production & other uses and water supply becomes more climate-resilient.
The project focusses thereby on measures at the local level and on areas in the BSR, where the water supply may be particularly affected by climate change. Main target group are, consequently, municipalities & water
companies that are responsible for local water management.
