In the South Baltic Area with its societies and economy closely linked to the Baltic Sea, a significant number of institutions deal with oceanographic issues. Marine science institutes, enterprises for aquaculture or fisheries management, maritime agencies, environmental consultancies, local and regional authorities, or NGOs dealing with marine environmental protection - they all are in need of highly qualified oceanographers. Yet, prognosis of the demographic development in one part of the SBA or a greater attractiveness of other professions in the other part endangers the success of future recruitment. Therefore, strengthening the SBA position in competing for qualified staff is crucial, especially as a prognosticated intensified use of the Baltic Sea (increasing exploitation of resources, densification of traffic followed by a higher probability of accidents with environmental damages, increasing numbers of off shore constructions) demands increasing numbers of well-trained oceanographers. The South Baltic WebLab aims at attracting school students to marine sciences and at promoting respective studies at universities in the SBA. It will also inform them about the relevant labour market and will encourage them to see their professional future within the SBA. The Baltic WebLab is founded on a three-fold approach: A) We will offer highly sophisticated eLearning modules on different Baltic Sea research issues - a kind of virtual laboratory for young people. The modules will be designed in close cooperation of all partners, following the didactic approach of problem-based, self-directed learning. B) We will provide a database about all institutions working in the field of oceanography within the SBA with target-group relevant information, for instance, on offers for internships. A selection of 21 oceanographers will present their everyday work in the form of blogs and will encourage young visitors of the site to add their own blogs, documenting interviews with "their" scientists from adjacent institutes. Thus, the students will be stimulated to get in "real" contact with scientists, too. C) Annual science camps will bring together school students age 15-18 from all participating regions and will offer tutored field campaigns at changing sites. D) The frame programme of these camps will include panel discussions and best-practise competitions, which, as a further target group, integrate school authorities from the local to regional level of all participating regions to serve the exchange of experience with "science meets school" activities. The consortium comprises five universities from all SBA countries representing the organisations responsible for student education and two public research institutes from Poland and Germany representing potential employers. School representatives from 4 SBA countries accompany the project as associated organisations. Contracts among the partners will ensure long-term usage and up-dating of the WebLab. Achievements: In between 2010-2013 the South Baltic WebLab project gathered research institutes and universities from all South Baltic countries and allowed for an active exchange of good practices. Main achievements are the conducted science camps as well as five e-learning modules.The module engine and the modules themselves have been created and published on http://vma.ku.lt/weblabnew/. They have been embedded into a learning course, with means for integrating web.2 features like means of evaluating, scoring, and awarding. Translations into national languages and voice recordings have been achieved. All modules, "History of the Baltic Sea", “Ecology of Baltic sea lagoons”, "Water exchange processes", “Coastal Dynamics”, and "Biogeochemical and Physical processes in the Open Baltic Sea" have been tested with school students on several occasions, and the results were evaluated to improve the modules. To complement the online-offers the project has provided some guidelines for activities which can be done offline. This hand-on offer focuses on the Baltic Sea hydrography, water colour and transparency as well as Baltic Sea living conditions. Further, 20 physical models have been produced and disseminated to schools in the SBA for running experiments to study the major characteristics of Baltic Sea hydrography (e.g. inflow of North Sea water, water stratification and their impact on oxygen). It supports integrating the WebLab eLearning offers as well as newly developed hands-on offers.Three Science Camps with all together 70 carefully selected school students and 14 teachers from all over the SBA were carried out in Germany, Poland, and Lithuania, with a lot of positive response. In support of these, preparatory and after-camp meetings took place in all the countries involved. A fourth science camp with newly developed hands-on experiments took place in September 2013 in Kappeln, Germany. During the camps, the young participants had the possibility to familiarize themselves with e.g. the issues in the field of marine geology, geomorphology, marine biology, coastal protection, climate research and weather conditions. The camps offered field work, work at sea, discovering interesting places of the Baltic coast and working in the lab as well as direct contacts to scientists. Altogether the camps provided the unique possibility for both scientists and students to work together and thus bridging science and school.Also, teachers’ training courses and science-meets-school conferences with science communicators, teachers, and ministry authorities, were carried out and documented. Additional trainings for teachers were carried out regionally on other occasions. Public awareness has been raised via press articles, TV and radio broadcasts, Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/southbalticweblab), blogs and by launching a campaign of Internet banners. The WebLab has been presented at several national and international conferences. A good-practice brochure on science-meets-school activities in the South Baltic Area was edited. Further a database on employers of marine scientists in the SBA has been published; an agreement on the durability of the WebLab and a network for further exchange and cooperation has been set up.