Background

Rural areas and rural economies are experiencing massive changes due to a variety of factors, including climate change, the health crisis, resource and biodiversity depletion, depopulation, digitalization, and the rapid evolution of new technologies. Rural communities and businesses, both agricultural and non-agricultural, must adapt to these changes in the face of an increasingly competitive and uncertain global environment.

Innovation is a cross-cutting priority of EU Rural Development Policy , and its connection with LEADER/CLLD is reinforced by the obligation for local action groups (LAGs) to take it into account when planning their local development strategies (LDS). Innovation, both social and technological, allows for innovative solutions to ensure a resilient future in rural areas. LEADER and LAGs have a key role to play in fostering the development of innovative, inclusive, and sustainable solutions to ensure a resilient future in rural areas.

Meeting objectives

This event aims to create a space for exchanging experiences among various Local Action Groups that have worked to promote innovation in their rural environment and community in order to improve the quality of life and the competitiveness of the local economy.

This meeting will also be an opportunity to explore, debate, and reflect on how the use of social and technological innovation can strengthen rural areas in the face of challenges such as climate change or the effects of the health crisis caused by COVID-19, and how it can become opportunities for rural areas, generating synergies and new cooperation networks within the region.

Specific objectives

• Exchange knowledge and best practices to take advantage of the opportunities offered by innovation for Rural Development Policies from a Leader perspective.
• Share experiences on the different strategies implemented by GALs to promote innovation.

You can watch the full recording of this session at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaexGe5eoHo