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Future Oriented Collaborative Policy Development for Rural Areas and People (PoliRural)
Over the past 25 years, rural areas have experienced a sharp decline in population, caused by people, especially young citizens, migrating to cities. By 2050 the population in the European urban environment is expected to increase by 24.1 million, becoming the residence of half the European Union population. For now, rural areas are inhabiting a quarter and providing jobs for a fifth of the EU’s population, but the changes are inevitable.
The rural environment is largely chosen by seniors who prefer more peaceful lifestyle, thus replacing the young people and workers interested in farming. The European Commission has compiled data showing that only 5.6% of all farms in Europe are managed by people under 35 years old, while 31% of the farmers are 65 and older. Given the current situation, it is concluded that rural policy cannot keep track of the changes happening worldwide and is losing an increasing number of experienced and knowledgeable citizens with valuable skills in agriculture.
Apart from migration, a high pressure on the agricultural sector is also being made by the climate change, which increases farmers' responsibility for the preservation of natural resources and requires the hiring of skilled workers who are able to monitor the use of chemicals, carbon dioxide emissions, the use of renewable energy, etc. The monitoring of the operations concerned has a significant impact on the ecological aspects and landscapes of the surroundings in the managed area, which attract tourists and thus is the source of income. In many of the European Union' s rural areas, tourism has evolved greatly over the years, creating new jobs and additional income for existing farming.
PoliRural is designed to contribute to the development of rural policy. It brings together various experts and people living in rural areas, aiming to make the countryside more attractive to existing and potential citizens. For the project to be successful, it’s developed using the foresight methodology, which promotes collective learning amongst participants, thus ensuring greater involvement and interest in the success of the project.
PoliRural study areas include 12 regions together with Vidzeme Planning Region.
Title
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Future Oriented Collaborative Policy Development for Rural Areas and People
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Abbreviation
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PoliRural
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Lead partner |
Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Czech Republic |
Project number |
818496 |
Programme |
Horizon 2020
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All partners
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- Czech Center for Science and Society, Czech Republic
- Plan4all zs., Czech Republic
- NÚVIT, Czech Republic
- Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Slovakia
- Agroinstitut Nitra, Slovakia
- City of Nitra, Slovakia
- KAJO s.r.o, Slovakia
- The Rural Parliament of Slovakia, Slovakia
- Baltic Open Solutions Center, Latvia
- Vidzeme Planning Region, Latvia
- Institute of Agricultural Resources and Economics, Latvia
- Latvian Rural Forum, Latvia
- NEUROPUBLIC SA, Greece
- GAIA EPICHEIREIN SA, Greece
- Agricultural University of Athens, Greece
- The Region of Sterea Ellada, Greece
- Portuguese Innovation Society, Portugal
- Migal – Galilee Research Institute, Ltd., Israel
- 21c Consultancy, United Kingdom
- Innovagritech srl., Italy
- Asplan Viak Internet AS (AVINET), Norway
- Crehan, Kusano and Associates S.P.R.L, Belgium
- The Joint Institute for Innovation Policy AISBL, Belgium
- Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Belgium
- AgFutura Technologies, Macedonia
- Club of Ossiach, Austria
- Empresa de transformatcion agraria SA, Spain
- Social Innolabs Foundation, Spain
- Antoni Oliva Quesada, Spain
- Smart & Lean, Finland
- Häme University of Applied Sciences, Finland
- European Rural Development Network, Poland
- The National Microelectronics Applications Centre Ltd, Ireland
- Murgia Più, Italy
- Confagricoltura Foggia, CONF, Italy
- Green Growth Platform, Macedonia
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Aims
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- To develop a multi-management policy innovation Centre and a European ecosystem that strengthens the evidence base for rural policy
- To establish the prevailing attitude towards rural policy among regional stakeholders, combining survey research with innovative text-mining techniques
- To explore the future paths of rural development in each participating region through a hybrid foresight approach (quantitative plus qualitative), considering the historical and current situation
- To develop an understanding of the perception of rural life in existing rural communities and potential newcomers
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Activities
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- To build a strong stakeholder community for the rural ecosystem
- To popularize the benefits of text mining for rural policy making
- To advance rural policy objectives by examining the text-mining tool in various cases
- To make the text mining results more accessible to a wider, non-tech audience
- To view the concept through system dynamics prism to better understand the underlying relationships and their impact
- To promote the use of a combined approach (modelling of systems dynamics and scenarios) to achieve the rural policy objectives relevant to future realities
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Results
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- Measures to raise the attractiveness of rural areas have been identified
- Conceptual model for the rural ecosystem is created
- Citizens' view of life in rural areas is identified
- The interconnections between rural development and the impact of policy are understood
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Budget
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Total budget of the project: 5 999 875 EUR
VPR budget: 108 066,16 EUR, EU funding programme: 108 066,16 EUR |
Implementation period
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01.06.2019 – 30.09.2022
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Contact person in VPR |
Lelde Ābele
+371 29266757
lelde.abele@vidzeme.lv
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Project website |
http://polirural.eu
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