• The ARIA 2023 Agricultural and Rural Inspiration Awards have recognized the "+Businesses +Employment +Rural" initiative (Castilla y León) for promoting employment development in rural areas.
• The Spanish projects chosen by the European CAP Network to represent Spain were "Mycorrhizae"; "+Businesses +Employment +Rural"; and the Phytovid Operational Group.
• This edition's theme is "Boosting skills for agriculture and rural areas," as 2023 is the "European Year of Skills."

The ARIA 2023 “Agrarian and Rural Inspiration Awards” , successors to the “Rural Inspiration Awards” , have awarded the regional cooperation project “+Companies +Employment +Rural” (Castilla y León) , within the thematic category “Socioeconomic fabric of rural areas”, for its revitalization of the labor market in rural areas through the promotion of entrepreneurship and a rural employment platform that offers job vacancies in 11 regions of Castilla y León.

This year's theme was "Boosting skills for agriculture and rural areas" , as 2023 is the "European Year of Skills" . The projects presented draw on the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development ( EAFRD ) and/or the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund ( EAGF ) , and are in line with the values and objectives promoted by the European Union's Long - Term Vision for Rural Areas and the Rural Pact .

The CAP Network has been the entity in charge of selecting the best projects submitted in each of the categories in Spain and, as such, has encouraged participation and reviewed the applications to be sent to the European CAP Network .

Awards

The 2023 ARIA Awards ceremony took place yesterday, December 4th, in Brussels. The five ARIA 2023 winners were revealed: four thematic winners (one per category), selected by the jury, and the Popular Vote winner, chosen through an online vote open from early November until December 1st. Any European citizen could vote for each of the 24 finalist projects to win the award in this category.

For the finalist projects in Spain, the jury decided that, within the thematic category "Socioeconomic Fabric of Rural Areas," the top award went to the regional cooperation project "+Businesses +Employment +Rural" (Castilla y León) .

Eleven Local Action Groups (LAGs) from Castile and León have worked together to improve employment and entrepreneurship, highlighting job opportunities and promoting sustainable development in rural areas. They thus contribute to the revitalization and promotion of the labor market through information, advice, and monitoring aimed at the unemployed, entrepreneurs, and businesses. They also have a rural employment platform .

If you'd like to see all the finalists and winners of this European edition, you can check them out here .

2022 Edition

In the last edition, the list of winners was as follows:

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, Europe 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.