Regions and municipalities are the key actors in managing urban-rural interactions and their impacts on quality of life. The conditions for urban-rural interactions are dependent on developments both at micro (individual) and at macro (planning) levels. These parallel processes are of specific relevance in the key pillars of quality of life in urban-rural context: (1) residential preferences; (2) mobility & accessibility and (3) provision of services. Due to the lack of coherent policies, strategies and their implementation these developments may have negative impacts not only on sustainable regional development, but also on quality of life and thus to the attractiveness of the particular region. Due to this the individual perspective need to be systematically analyzed and introduced to the planning processes throughout the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). Project aims to improve the management of quality of life in urban-rural planning. The project evaluates potentials for more sustainable urban-rural interactions within the BSR. Project produces and implements new working methods and pilot models to improve the management of quality of life that correspond to the needs of people living in the BSR. The project focuses on individual preferences and future potentials with regard to the three key pillars. The project analyses the preferences of different population segments and stakeholder groups in urban-rural areas and compare them to the existing policies and practices. Based on these results project defines and implements pilot actions in partner city-regions. Project develops new planning tools and introduces an integrated management approach to urban-rural interactions. To benefit also other city-regions, project produces a training package and a set of policy and practice recommendations for regional and national level. The project consortium consists of 15 partners from 9 BSR countries. The project Lead Partner is Union of the Baltic Cities (UBC). The expertise organisation Nordic Centre for Spatial Development (Nordregio) will carry out the evaluation of the potentials and suggestions of pilot actions. The Centre for Environmental Technologies and Administration (ECAT-Lithuania) will coordinate the implementation of pilot actions and development of the management of urban-rural interactions. The project consortium with local and regional partners covers widely the BSR. The associated partners represent the relevant transnational, national and regional level authorities and organisations. Achievements: The New Bridges project 'Strengthening of Quality of Life through Improved Management of Urban Rural Interaction' (2009-2012) has been developing novel methods and new perspectives to city-regional planning around the Baltic Sea Region. The main achievements were 1) Improved urban-rural interaction and more coherent city-regional planning across the administrative and sectoral borders. 2) Development of more inclusive and participatory regional planning methods involving different stakeholders and especially the residents of the regions in the planning process. Important results of the project were the Pilot Actions, local projects implemented by the 7 NEW BRIDGES partner city-regions. The Pilot Actions were built around the three key elements of the project: residential preferences, production of services and mobility and accessibility. The local Pilot Actions varied from sustainable mobility plans to parts of joint city-regional master plans. The scope and the scale of the Pilot Action varied but all had certain aspects in common: improving quality of life in the region by taking into account better the individual perspectives of local residents and other stakeholder groups and increasing the cooperation between urban and rural municipalities aiming at more integrated regional planning. Involving local actors in the planning process through concrete actions like local stakeholder meetings helped to better understand the value of planning together with the goal of creating better living environments. The project has also focused on further conceptualizing the concept of Quality of Life. Published handbook Managing Quality of Life in the Context of Urban-Rural Interaction – Approaches from the Baltic Sea Region on quality of life and its 3 elements helps to better understand and analyse the multidimensional concept and take it better into account in regional planning. In a result of multilevel (macro-regional, national and city-regional) cooperation in BSR the project developed Planning Together for Better Quality of Life – Guide for Integrated Management of Urban Rural Interaction. The guide presents comprehensively new improved and integrated management model for strengthening urban-rural interaction. Furthermore, it gives policy recommendations for three different governing levels. The guide is complemented with the Online toolkit, which is a series of practical advises on how to apply more integrated approach to planning: how to go through systematically different planning activities together in the city-regional context; how to involve individuals, private sector actors, politicians and other stakeholders into the planning process; how to increase the cooperation between urban and rural municipalities.