CHALLENGES: The competition for international job-seekers, especially professionals and students (called “expats” in this application) and the ethnic diversity in the CBSR are increasing fast as a result of globalisation. Facilitating and increasing the interaction among individuals with widely different backgrounds are key priorities for community development in Europe and is critical for maintaining the competiveness and internal cohesion of the CBSR. OBJECTIVES: To develop a common platform for providing innovative services (here called “soft-landing and soft-departure services”) to increase the interaction among the expats, locals and private and public service providers. The platform will facilitate the exchange and use of innovative services promoting social networking and human capital in the CBSR. The platform will provide expats and their immediate family with easier access to employment opportunities and to a better quality of life in the CBSR. WORK PACKAGES: WP1 is project management and communication. WP2 (Social network development) aims at developing and piloting the service platform improving interaction between expats and locals as well as actors and organizations from the public and private sectors. WP3 (Soft departure) researches and recommends services needed to assist potential expats to prepare for moving to the CBSR before their departure. WP4 (Soft landing) surveys current services provided to expats by different actors in the CBSR and develop ways to better coordinate and integrate the services. PARTNERSHIP: The partners consist of regional authorities, research institutes, area developers and universities from Sweden, Estonia, Latvian and Finland. The inputs of regional authorities in the project will be policy recommendation for initiatives coordination and awareness promotion; area developers, research institutes, universities will be knowledge providers, action coordinators and new service testers. APPROACH: The project will survey and evaluate existing expat services provided by public and private organisations and pilot a service platform (virtual and physical space) where information, services, events, contacts and etc. can be easily accessed by expats and other users. EXPAT will evaluate the quality of current soft-landing services and broaden the service concept to include soft-departure services. Pilots will be carried out and tested in partner regions where appropriate. RESULTS: The novelty and added value of the project is the intention to combine both social and professional services into one service platform by involving recently developed leisure orientated services and social media as a way to motivate expats, locals and service providers to interact in a fashion that is both productive and stress free. The platform will also act as a two-way information channel for service providers to communicate efficiently with beneficiaries. Achievements: The project aimed at improving expat's access to local networks, both social and professional, and thereby also improving the standard of living of expats in the Central Baltic region. At the same time, the probability of talented people remaining in the region would increase. An important long-term goal was to develop the services offered to skilled people moving to the region. EXPAT developed a common platform for the provision of innovative services (so-called “soft-landing and soft-departure services”) to increase interaction amongst expats, locals and private as well as public service providers. The project thus facilitated the exchange and use of innovative services that could promote social networking in the region. Furthermore, the project compiled policy recommendations for local, regional and national authorities and other stakeholders involved in the interaction with expats.