We have completed the activities of the seed money project with partners from Lithuania and Poland, which took place on June 13-14, in physical form, in Elblag and Malbork. Behind us were 2 intensive days of workshops combined with a study visits.

The second, and final workshop meeting of the BeLIVE project was held on the first day at the headquarters of our Association. The workshop was devoted to work on the concept paper and future partnerships.

The meeting was attended by representatives from the town of Neringa from the Department of Strategic Planning, Investment and Tourism, the Administration of Silute district Municipality from the departments of city development and international cooperation and European projects, the Association of Municipalities "Polish Gothic Castles," the Museum of the City of Malbork, the municipality of Gietrzwałd and our Association.

Partners from Poland and Lithuania had the opportunity to meet for the second time live. The first visit took place less than three weeks ago in Silute, Lithuania. At that time, the meeting was hosted by the Silute District Administration - report.

Study visits took place in the second part of the day.

The first place was the Archaeological and Historical Museum, where modern virtual reality solutions were presented. The second venue was the "Światowid" European Meeting Center in Elblag, which has modern digitization equipment. The visits were thematically related to the goal of the project, we wanted the partners to learn about interesting examples related to the theme of virtual reality in order to be able to duplicate them in an improved form and implement them as promotion of tourist attractions built on the theme of cultural heritage.

On the second day we were hosted in Malbork. In the first part of the day we visited the exhibitions in the resources of the Malbork City Museum. We had the opportunity to learn about some of the well-known and lesser-known history of Malbork, we learned about the history of the Jews in the Malbork area, we visited a temporary exhibition on loan from the National Museum and an exhibition commemorating the victims of the POW camp.

The second part of the visit was devoted to workshop work. We focused on the discussion regarding the target group, pointed out the need to create a platform of understanding and joint support in promoting each other's goods. We also touched on the budget and future financing of the regular project.

The last item on the agenda was a tour of Malbork's Teutonic Castle. We had the opportunity to listen to historical trivia presented by the guide, while admiring the buildings of the Gothic fortification, the historical rooms and the amber exhibition.

Our work is still in progress. Although the delegation from Lithuania has already returned to their country, we are still working on the best solutions for us to make the BeLIVE project perfect to the smallest detail.

The Lithuanian partner from Silute was the first live meeting point of the BeLIVE project. The conference was hosted by the Administration of Silute district Municipality, which held the meeting at the Silute Museum - a place of pride for local government and residents.

From the Lithuanian side, the meeting was attended by representatives of the Silute municipality from the departments of city development and international cooperation and European projects, employees of the Silute Museum, and representatives of the other BeLIVE project partner, from the city of Neringa from the department of strategic planning, investment and tourism, and from the city's tourist information.

The delegation from Poland included representatives of the Malbork Museum, the Association of Municipalities "Polish Gothic Castles" and the Association of Polish Communes Euroregion Bałtyk.

In Lithuania we spent an intensive time talking about our organizations, the possibilities for developing cooperation. This direct communication allowed us not only to exchange ideas on the project, but thanks to the live meeting we were able to learn from each other, learn about each other's needs and discuss common solutions.

Complementing the meetings in Lithuania were study visits in line with the nature of the project, as they focused on an area related to cultural heritage.

1. We visited the town of Sveksna and learned about the local architectural buildings that constitute the greatest historical value of the place - the church and the palace complex as an example of the most beautiful manor house in Samogitia.

The second place was the picturesque Rusne Island with several thousand inhabitants and hundreds of thousands of birds, where amidst fields crisscrossed by canals emerges a place with a local restaurant, where the hosts take care of the history of the place by evoking the flavors of dishes prepared according to the old recipes of the noble Radziwiłł family.

On the second day we worked in the form of workshops on the shape of the future project concept, discussed the formulation of the goal, indicators and project activities.

After finishing our work, we went on a study visit where we visited an environmental education site, in a village located on the Curonian Spit, to which the partner organized a boat cruise. The site of our visit is located in a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The project is planning 2 seed action meetings, 1 international meeting in each partner country with the participation of all partners and stakeholders. Online partner meetings are also being organized to enable even wider exchange of experiences and good practices as ongoing activities, both on the Lithuanian and Polish sides.

In June we will meet in Poland, there will be a workshop on working on the final project document, project concept paper (as a seed for a regular project), while during the study visit we will visit places in Elblag and Malbork thematically related to the project.

On 14 April, the project BeLIVE - BALTIC LIVING HISTORY LESSONS was launched with an online conference. It is an undertaking carried out with the participation of Polish and Lithuanian local authorities and organisations: The City of Malbork, the Association of Communes "Polish Gothic Castles" from Olsztyn and the Lithuanian towns of Silute and Neringa. The project leader is the Association of Polish Municipalities Euroregion Baltic.

The project aims to build strong Baltic roots based on the country's cultural heritage resources through their dissemination using modern and creative tools.

The project responds to the need to explore the world in a more accessible way in unpredictable times when historical objects and cultural assets are available today and access may not be available tomorrow.

The project partnership is built on the diversity of the partners' tangible and intangible cultural resources and assets. The BeLIVE project wants to exploit all the characteristics of the partner entities and strengthen the potential of the South Baltic.

During the online conference, the outline of the project, the steps we need to take to make things happen, was once again presented to all partners. And the first activity will be a workshop, where all partners will meet live. Together we will explore the potential of our cities and resources. We will start with our Lithuanian partner Silute, a town located a few kilometres from the Curonian Lagoon. The town of Neringa, our second Lithuanian partner in the BeLIVE project, is located on the Curonian Spit.

The tasks we want to address in the seed project are diagnosis, discernment and baseline data, which we will use to gather valuable information. In the seed project we will be focused on gathering information about the resources and opportunities for building a common Baltic identity.

The project is very much in development and the provisions of the seed proposal provide us with a starting framework.

The BeLIVE project is implemented from the Interreg South Baltic Seed Money Programme, which targets countries in the Baltic Sea area. As a Seed Money Programme, it aims to facilitate the process of preparing full-scale projects to be implemented and funded under the regular calls for proposals of the Interreg South Baltic Programme. It aims to stimulate the development of high quality projects and serves as an incentive for potential beneficiaries to convince local decision-makers to develop a project idea, as the relevant costs are co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).