Lessons Learnt: Baltic Sea Region Common Identity

There are quite a few ideas, thoughts, lessons that you get as working in a transnational project team. The Baltic Sea Underground Innovation Network (BSUIN) project gave us a great opportunity to learn more about the common identity and differences that we have around our Baltic Sea.

There are quite a few ideas, thoughts, lessons that you get as working in a transnational project team. The Baltic Sea Underground Innovation Network (BSUIN) project gave us a great opportunity to learn more about the common identity and differences that we have around our Baltic Sea.

As the BSUIN project team members, we had an online workshop in September 2020. We asked ourselves: What have we learnt about and/or given to the Baltic Sea Region common identity and transnational value?

One of the main learnings is that in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) we have different countries, but the same way of thinking. Getting to know people from different BSR countries helps to understand the shared interests and challenges. We share a lot of similar challenges and possibilities across the whole region, and we are historically strongly interconnected. One remark is, that we are closer to each other than we seem to understand.

There is a lot of potential in the Baltic Sea area. This region has a chance to become a global player and lead innovation actor in a very competitive way if we collaborate. Separate countries are not as attractive as the entire region for strategic partners and investors.


Baltic Sea region countries have good mining background, which made the BSUIN project implementation easier. We noticed that there are not-fully-used underground facilities everywhere, and the underground laboratories (UL) have the same challenges. The ULs need an umbrella type of organization so that their voice could be better heard. As a great result of our project, the European Underground Laboratories association (https://undergroundlabs.network/) was founded. In the future, it can have a great impact. It will be one way to combine different funding possibilities and getting actors to work together to be more effective and powerful.

In the coming decades, it is logical to have more intensive cooperation in various areas and sectors in our Baltic Sea Region. We have much more to share and cooperate than compete or ignore.

Exploring the ULs’ expectations for a CRM system

Choosing the right CRM system for an organization is challenging, which is why prior to the acquisition, precise CRM system requirements and specifications should be defined to support decision-making. One of the aims of the project was to provide CRM system requirements specification for the ULs. To explore the needs and limitations of the ULs, an online survey was used in this project.

OCTOBER 3, 2021

BIG DATA and global underground laboratories

In the EUL project, we develop better customer management and marketing processes for the partner laboratories and enhance the discovery and usability of the created online platform.

SEPTEMBER 9, 2021

EUL Innovation platform V1.1: implementing updates

One of the main aims of the EUL (Empowering Underground Laboratories Network Usage) project is to test and develop the EUL Innovation platform and to make the tool into a more user-friendly and more purposeful direction for the potential customers and the underground laboratory managers to use. To achieve it WP2 team with its leader Jose Garcia de Real organized interactive workshops to gather ideas on how to make it possible.

JUNE 6, 2021

Lessons Learnt: Actions towards the more sustainable Baltic Sea region

Baltic Sea Underground Innovation Network (BSUIN) project partners worked together to achieve the main targets of the project. At the same time we all gave our input to the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme 2014-2020 goal to support a more sustainable Baltic Sea region.

MAY 19, 2020

Study of natural background radiation in Callio Lab (Finland)

The Callio Lab is one of the six underground laboratories participating in the BSUIN project. The natural background radiation (NBR) measurements were performed in Callio Lab (located in the Pyhäsalmi Mine (Finland)) in July 2018 by a group from the University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland. The NBR measurement carried out at a depth of 1436 m (~4000 m w.e.) in the felsic volcanic bedrock occurs.

MAY 19, 2020

Open Day in Partner Institution – Institute of Physics, University of Silesia (Poland)

The BSUIN project was presented during the Open Day in Institute of Physics, University of Silesia (Poland).

MAY 14, 2020

Interview with Mia Pujol on intelligent lightning in underground conditions

The European Geoscience Union General Assembly 2020 was this year converted into EGU2020: Sharing Geoscience Online (#shareEGU20). The online program was held from 4th to 8th of May with inter- and transdisciplinary sessions, disciplinary sessions, Union symposia, and great debates. Short courses and other events took place in different formats.

OCTOBER 30, 2019

BSUIN project – great example of EU & Russia collaboration

Forum Strategov 2019 took place in St. Petersburg on 28.-29. of October 2019. In this event, separate part has been dedicated to the Baltic Sea region projects, seminar dialogue “The Baltic Sea Region: Russia-EU Transnational Cooperation Results and Perspectives” where Baltic Sea Underground Innovation Network (BSUIN) project was one of the examples of EU & Russia collaboration.

JUNE 17, 2019

Interview with Mia Pujol on intelligent lightning in underground conditions

Mia Pujol wrote her thesis on the topic of ”Lighting at the End of the Tunnel-The Design of Adaptive and Intelligent Lighting for an Underground Workspace”. She chose the research question with the determination to not fall into the trap of just formulating a very complex research question. ”When the topic of a thesis is as unique as mine is, there is often the tendency to over-complicate”, says Pujol. She thinks one of the most important things to achieve is to make the lighting accessible to a large number of people.

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