CoMaDe Science by the Coast
This winter school focused on coastal and marine development in the Baltic Sea Region. It took place from 2-6 February 2026 at Hel Marine Station, University of Gdańsk, Poland.
During the event, 39 students representing 30 BUP participating universities took part. Among these were four PhD students who each supervised a group of students.
The winter school was the first of three events connected to the Swedish Institute-financed project 'CoMaDe - Coastal and Marine Development through Collaboration and Interdisciplinary Learning'. The project aims to foster connections among students across the region and deepen their understanding of sustainability challenges along the Baltic Sea coastline.
Outcomes of the training
The winter school resulted in four unique student projects, communicating the students’ learning outcome in the format of storytelling, directed towards a specific stakeholder group chosen by the students. The students also evaluated their newly gained knowledge from the winter school, which showed that they had gained a better understanding of the complex issues of the Baltic Sea, as well as developed their in-depth learning and analytical capabilities.
Participants and organisers at the BUP winter school Science by the Coast. Photo: Pontus Ambros
Evaluation of the event
The evaluation was completed by 34 participants and the training received an overall score of 9/10. The highlights in the program, according to the participants, were the lecture and workshop on Marine Spatial Planning and the introduction to the Hel Peninsula and Puck Bay, which received ratings of 9.2/10 and 9/10, respectively. The lecture, workshop and analysis of human pressures in the Baltic Sea also got high praise.
The food and accommodation were highly appreciated, as were the communication with the BUP staff and the online lectures prior to the event.
Quotes from the evaluation
“As this event was the first such event in my life - I liked every single minute of it. This school has exceeded all of my expectations, this experience is literally gold.”
“I liked learning about things I had never heard about before, like the history of Hel and Marine spatial planning.”
“I liked meeting people from different parts of the world with different specialist areas. And learning something outside my subject. I really liked the spatial planning roleplaying- it was a great and fun way to learn.”
Organiser voice
”We had a pleasure hosting the students as participants of the winter school. As the theme of the course was the development of the Hel Peninsula and Puck Bay area and especially the pressure of tourism we were a bit worried that the students would have no chance to experience the pressure in winter and as a consequence do not fully understand the problem in this winter wilderness. But despite the harsh winter conditions they had a chance to take part in the study tours along the Peninsula and could see the architecture of touristic facilities what, together with the help of an expert in the field, gave them a touch of different ways of development having strong impact on the natural values of the area. With the comprehensive information from the marine biology experts the students have received full and sufficient knowledge to work on the main goal of the project – develop proposals of sustainable development of the coastal zone of the Puck Bay and Hel Peninsula as the most economically transformed zone on the Polish seaside.
I feel happy and most satisfied with the students commitment to develop the assigned topic, with their lively and fruitful group discussions and using a variety of ways to present their conclusions. It was a pleasure to work with the participants and a motivation to go further. I also hope they had a great time here and will transfer problems and ways of solving them to their fields of future work and life.”
- Iwona Pawliczka vel Pawlik, Prof Krzysztof Skóra Hel Marine Station
Participant evaluations
- The students gave the supervision they received an 8.3/10 rating.
- Participants gave the presentations and discussions in smaller groups an 8.8/10 rating.
- Participants thought that the event was worthwhile in attending, in terms of their studies, future aspirations and career, giving a 8/10 rating.
All overall ratings were made on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is considered negative and 10 is considered positive.
Voices of participants
David Kvarielashvili - Student from Kyiv Aviation Institute
Since this was my first experience at such an event, I honestly didn't know what to expect. I expected to learn something new, meet new people, and have a good time. And that was definitely it!
The best part of the school was definitely the people. Thanks to them, this school left incredible and unforgettable emotions.
I'll bring home new knowledge for sure, and a bunch of new friendships! Also, I'm taking a small white stuffed joy-seal from Hel for my wife :)
Karl Weckström - PhD student from Åbo Akademi University
Before attending, I expected to get a better understanding of the local environment and its unique challenges when it comes to marine/coastal management. Further, I expected the diverse backgrounds of the students to provide both a challenge and an asset to approaching the themes of the winter school.
The best part of the winter school was the first exercise together with the groups on-site. Both meeting the group in-person and learning what the students know (and do not) and how they take in the information they are provided with was really rewarding.
My main takeaway is how to convey information/ a message to someone who doesn't know the subject. The storytelling approach was made concrete for me through trying to support the students – if you need to make your point sink in and be remembered in a very short time – you cannot provide a bullet point list of information; it simply will not stick.
Images from the event
Photo: Pontus Ambros
Pictured is Dr. Iwona Pawliczka, head of Hel Marine Station, University of Gdańsk. Iwona gave an presentation of the case study area – the Hel Peninsula and the Puck Bay - Diversity of nature, culture, traditions and development of the area
Photo: Pontus Ambros
The participants got the opportunity to visit the seal hospital. This initiative allows for the rescue of young seals in need of human assistance. This is a measure aimed at reducing the excessive mortality of these mammals in the Baltic Sea.
Photo: Pontus Ambros
Dr. Aleksandra Zgrundo, University of Gdańsk, gave the lecture 'The history of the Baltic Sea and human pressures over the last 60 years'. Aleksandra was also responsible for worshops during the event.
Photo: Pontus Ambros
The participating students arrived at a frozen Baltic Sea and got the opportunity to spend time in a wintry Hel peninsula.
Photo: Pontus Ambros
The students were divided into groups where they conducted case studies under the supervision of PhD students. Each group collected data, consulted experts, studied key indicators, and learned to draw conclusions to better understand coastal development in the Baltic Sea.
