• The 4th edition of the "Rural Inspiration Awards 2022" - organized by the European Network for Rural Development - announces the projects that have received support from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) for the period 2014-2020.
• This year the awards were dedicated to youth: "The future is youth."

Success stories—when disseminated and publicized—can inspire more people and organizations to replicate similar initiatives in their territories. These actions, known as "best practices," can help rural areas adapt to the economic, environmental, and social challenges of the 21st century. For this to happen, the key lies in the effective compilation and dissemination of these works.

Hence the purpose and origin of the “European Rural Inspiration Awards 2022” ( in English “ Rural Inspiration Awards” (RIA)), which were created by the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD) to publicize the projects that benefit from aid from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).

After three editions with different themes, the title of this year's awards was " The future is youth ", given that 2022 is the European Year of Youth .

In this edition, the ENRD received 111 projects from 24 Member States across four thematic categories: "Green Futures," "Digital Futures," "Resilient Futures," and "Socially Inclusive and Innovative Futures." Citizens were able to determine the winner of the "Popular Vote" through an online vote.

Winners

1. “Green Futures”: “Woola: Replacing bubble wrap by producing packaging from waste wool” (Estonia)
2. “Digital Futures: Broadband for our community” (Ireland)
3. “Resilient Futures”: “ Red Cow Breed” (Greece)
4. “Socially Inclusive and Innovative Futures” : Center for Social Inclusion (Romania)
5. “Popular Vote”: “ The most pessimistic town in Finland ” (Finland)

As the Spanish representative, the ENRD chose the "Museos Vivos-Living Museums " project (Castilla y León and Galicia) , within the "Digital Futures" category, because it is a rural project that includes innovation and new technologies in its development, although it ultimately did not win compared to the other projects in its category.

The Rural Inspiration Awards 2022 ceremony took place on 6 October in Brussels, coinciding with the launch of the new European CAP Network , which will transform the current national rural networks into “CAP Networks” within the period of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023-2027.

Previous editions

At the third edition of the Rural Inspiration Awards (RIA) 2021, Spain was honored thanks to the "Local-Scale Circular Bioeconomy Pilot Project" by Josenea and the Public University of Navarra. The project was recognized in the " Resilient Future" category for its contribution to strengthening the resilience of rural areas.

In its first call, the Spanish initiative Agroberry won the award for improving the competitiveness of rural areas. In the second edition, the Spanish project Ecopionet came in second place in the popular vote category.