In public discourse, the ability of societies to cope with external disruptions is captured by the concept of resilience. Resilience refers to a system’s capacity to facilitate adaptation and transformation without sacrificing its identity. Applied to the Baltic Sea region, disruptions to the socio-ecological system have the potential to foster innovations in ecological systems and social structures if the system is designed to be resilient. We therefore speak of transformative resilience. Using this approach of transformative resilience, the Greifswald Research Consortium is investigating, across ten work packages, phenomena and processes that have contributed to the development of resilient societies in the Baltic Sea region and will continue to do so in the future.