FOCUS

Interreg South Baltic Project

What is FOCUS

To support EU2020 Strategy by contributing to smart, sustainable and inclusive development and to implement strategic changes for increasing the Blue Growth (BG) potential of the South Baltic Region (SBR), a higher number of skilled labour force working either at R&D labs or marine/maritime technology sectors is a priority.

The project will develop a virtual mobility platform (VMP) to enable virtual learning on marine biotechnology and marine/coastal tourism, and working in cross-border teams to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and transfer of good practices related to BG in the marine sector (Stage A). The project will carry out a pilot VMP with teachers, trainers (digital learning experts) and students from countries in the SBR using a digital education system (Stage B).

During Stage A, the following actions are to be taken:

A.1 performing a feasibility study combining required knowledge needs for the marine biotechnology and tourism sector in the SBR, and define human resources skills specific to BG
A.2 identification of at least 5 crucial subjects for the knowledge transfer in the sector
A.3 developing course syllabus related to BG sectors by at least 2 cross-border teams of trainers and teachers, at the same time developing the content for e-Mentoring course by 1 cross-border team
A.4 adaptation of the developed content by the cross-border team of digital learning experts to the virtual training; launching the VMP.

The Stage B will cover:

B.1 Pilot delivery of e-Mentoring course for the teachers participating in action A.3;
B.2 Pilot online delivery of at least 5 subjects addressing BG topics;
B.3 Feedback survey and improvement of content and virtual platform.

The virtual/digital courses developed in FOCUS target both undergraduate/graduate students and employed professionals in need of lifelong learning. VMP will act towards the wider continuous learning/training environment and well prepared professionals in BG sector companies in the SBR.

INTERREG South Baltic Programme

FOCUS description in Project Database

Steering commettee

Dalia Baziukė, Klaipeda University (LT, Lead Partner)
Ilona Rupšienė, Lithuania Business University of Applied Sciences (LT, Project Partner)
Catherine Legrand, Linnaeus University (SE, Project Partner)
Hanna Mazur-Marzec, University of Gdansk (PL, Project Partner)
Bent Holtzmann, Roskilde Business College (DK, Project Partner)

Management unit

Jurgita Maračkinaitė, Klaipeda University (LT, Lead Partner)
Kristina Puleikienė, Lithuania Business University of Applied Sciences (LT, Project Partner)
Elisabeth Carlsson, Linnaeus University (SE, Project Partner)
Katarzyna Sutryk, University of Gdansk (PL, Project Partner)
John Wallin Pedersen, Roskilde Business College (DK, Project Partner)

Internal Communication

Project NEWS

17/06/2020

At the moment the FOCUS project open online courses has reached more than 4500 students all around world!

FOCUS project reach

15/06/2020

The FOCUS project open online courses are revived on Udemy.com platform. Visit our landing page at http://www.udemy.com/user/sb-focus-project or click the products link on this page.

25/12/2019

Wishing you Merry Christmas and a Happy Upcoming 2020!

18/12/2019

Our next milestone was set to the mid of February 2020 to check how we succeed with improvements. And now what we got on the last days is the surprise from Eliademy.com platform – they switched off their service.

The official message regarding this is available on their blog at blog.eliademy.com saying „ that Eliademy is entering bankruptcy protection.“

With the technical team here in Klaipeda we started the process of evaluation of the alternatives. Most likely we will put all what FOCUS has created to the udemy.com as they offer such a possibility without charges.

So, regarding the improvements - let us see all this situation as one big improvement of our good product to become even better!

13/12/2019
FOCUS project partner meeting and final conference took place in Klaipeda University.

31/10/2019

FOCUS project presents eleven open online learning courses. Watch the video for more information!

03/09/2019

We are very joyful to announce that all open online courses are now opened for public and are available through the open online learning platform at http://focusproject.eliademy.com . Five Coastal tourism sector and five plus one courses from Marine Biotechnology sector are now published for the massive use. The pilot delivery is opened until the 31st of October, 2019.

16/05/2019

On May 16th the fourth FOCUS project partner meeting has ended in Roskilde, Denmark. During this meeting the team focused on upcoming pilot delivery of the online courses, audio visual advertising materials to be developed, and project results durability.

16/01/2019

On January 9th the FOCUS project team has gathered together in Klaipeda to discuss the ongoing issues and obstacles. As a result of the meeting we have things cleared and the promise to start the pilot course delivery on http://focusproject.eliademy.com from the 1st April, 2019. To remind -five courses from the Coastal tourism sector and five courses from Marine Biotechnology sector are under development and has to be ready till the mid of March, 2019.

30/05/2018

On May 23-24 the Annual Event "Unlocking the potential of blue and green regional development" of the Interreg South Baltic Cross Border Cooperation Program took place in Klaipėda, the seaport of Lithuania.

The Annual Event of the Programme was dedicated to mark the successful implementation of the Programme and to present to the public the most important and interesting joint projects of the Western part of Lithuania and other regions of participating countries - Denmark, Poland, Sweden and Germany. The Programme's Annual Event attendance was high. The event attracted about 150 participants from Lithuania and other South Baltic countries. Every year, this event takes place in another South Baltic region’s country participating in the Programme.

More information here

22/02/2018

Feasibility studies in Marine Biotechnology and Coastal Tourism that were performed in 2017 by addressing more than 50 stakeholders in South Baltic have indicated the key skills in the sectors.

According to the survey results main common competencies in marine biotechnology sector are:

Communication and Decision making;
Ability to learn and Analytical activity and research;
Creativity.

and main specific competences in marine biotechnology are:

Specific competences in chemistry (e.g. organic chemistry and biocatalysis) and in analytical chemistry;
Specific competences in bioscience (e.g. molecular biology, genetics, microbiology) and Specific technical skills in analytical methods: downstream processing (fractionation, isolation, purification, identification), synthesis;
Knowledge of natural products from diverse marine organisms and the importance of such substances in biotechnology.

Main common competencies in coastal tourism sector are:

Communication;
Creativity and Ability to learn;
Decision making and Languages.

Main specific competences in tourism are:

Tourism Product and Service Marketing and Hospitality;
Development of tourism services (events, tours, outdoor trips, excursions, etc.);
Management and planning (Business, Organizational, Tourism service, Strategic).

The results are available in two following documents:

23/12/2017

! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year wishes !

For all of us - fruitful collaboration and braveness to overcome obstacles, and seek for outstanding outcomes! Merry Christmas and all the best in the New 2018!

05/12/2017

The members of cross-border teams have finished the Open Networked Learning Course. The ONL course covers the topics such as Online participation and digital literacy, Open Learning – sharing and openness, Learning in communities – networked collaborative learning, Design for online and blended learning. The competences, built during this course, will lay the background skills for Marine Biotechnology and Coastal Tourism professionals to build the capacity to teach in online open courses. We are glad to share some moments from this very course activity.

27/11/2017

The Open Classroom strand within EDEN was launched in 1995, with the focus on: distance education and new technologies in school level education and training, mapping and exchange of information about initiatives, and the transfer of ideas from the more traditional areas of ODL to the school sector. The success of the first conference, entitled “The Open Classroom”, and the continuing interest of the international ODL professional community was the catalyst to develop this movement further within EDEN.
The Open Classroom Working Group functions with the participation of European experts, researchers and academics of school-level distance and e-learning from EDEN member organizations.
This year the conference took place in Kaunas, Lithuania, aiming to discuss the challenges of open professional collaboration in higher, adult, school, vocational education and company training and seeks to develop synergy among national, regional, European and global initiatives, professional associations, education and business partnerships.
During the conference, as well it was discuss how the following topics and challenges are met in all levels of education:

Open Education: trends, resources, practices and challenges
From Open Educational Resources to Open Educational Practices
Open learning for personal, professional and societal development
Digitally competent teacher and learner
Transforming curriculum for Open Classroom

The FOCUS project was represented in the conference as well. Alastair Creelman (PP4 – Linaeus University, SE) and Dalia Baziukė (LP – Klaipėda University, LT) took part in the event. During the final plenary local community members were honored with recognition certificates for their long lasting contribution to the development of innovations in Open and distance learning in Lithuania. The FOCUS team is proud and happy to announce that the project leader Dalia Baziukė is among the awarded community members!

02/11/2017

Currently the members of cross-border teams that will work on development of open learning courses in Marine Biotechnology and Coastal Tourism fields are heavily involved into the Open Networked Learning Course. The ONL course covers the topics such as Online participation and digital literacy, Open Learning – sharing and openness, Learning in communities – networked collaborative learning, Design for online and blended learning. The competences, built during this course, will lay the background skills for Marine Biotechnology and Coastal Tourism professionals to build the capacity to teach in online open courses.

15/09/2017

Recently (September 12-13, 2017) the FOCUS project team gathered together in Sopot for our second partner meeting. During it survey results regarding specific and common competences in Marine Biotechnology and Coastal Tourism sectors was discussed, initial findings presented.

31/05/2017

The project has now entered the stage of performing a feasibility study combining required knowledge needed for marine biotechnology and tourism sector in the South Baltic region and defining human resources skills specific to Blue Growth.