Rhein-Hunsrück Region in Germany: Addressing Socio-Economic Transitions and Bridging the Gap Between Businesses and Young Talent

Living lab of Rhein-Hunsrück Region in Germany

Embarking on a journey into the heart of Germany, the Rhein-Hunsrück region emerges as a captivating landscape of both challenges and potential. Nestled in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, this predominantly rural district stands at the forefront of socio-economic and demographic transitions, navigating complexities in the face of an ageing population and a shifting employment landscape. With a keen focus on addressing these challenges, the Rhein-Hunsrück region is looking for solutions trough is participation in the RUSTIK project.

The  collaboration between the Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning (IFLs) and the Regionalrat Wirtschaft Wirtschaftsförderung, which oversees regional economic development, aims to unravel the intricacies of socio-economic transition processes, offering a unique perspective shaped by the region’s economic development efforts and an extensive network of stakeholders. Join us as we delve into the dynamics of Rhein-Hunsrück, where the journey towards sustainable change unfolds against the backdrop of demographic shifts and the pursuit of a more vibrant, attractive future for both businesses and the emerging workforce.

Key District Statistics:

  • Area: 99,107 hectares
  • Population Density: 107.3 inhabitants/km²
  • Population: 64,568 enterprises
  • Majority: Nearly 4,430 small and very small businesses (fewer than 50 employees)
  • Larger Businesses: Only 21 with more than 250 employees

Transition Focus: Socio-economic and Demographic Challenges:

Facing socio-economic and demographic challenges, Rhein-Hunsrück experiences a shortage of skilled workers across various industries, with unfilled training and apprenticeship positions. The region, while economically sound, struggles to attract and retain a diverse workforce.

Living Lab Challenge: Bridging Gaps in Talent and Job Opportunities

Within the Rhein-Hunsrück region, the pivotal challenge focuses on addressing the mismatch between job opportunities and the skilled workforce. Despite the region’s favorable economic standing, there’s a shortage of skilled workers across various industries, with unfilled training and apprenticeship positions adding to the complexity. The challenge also extends to essential services, particularly in medical and nursing care, raising concerns about the region’s ability to attract and retain talent. This Living Lab endeavors to analyze this “mismatching problem” comprehensively, aiming to understand the specific needs and aspirations of both local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and diverse groups of young individuals. By exploring innovative solutions, the Living Lab seeks to strengthen connections, foster collaboration, and initiate new networks to overcome these challenges.

Rationale and Policy Relevance:

As a crucial link between economic development and creating an attractive living and working environment, the Living Lab addresses challenges identified through discussions with local stakeholders. The project aligns with state-level strategies for skilled workers and demographic change, recognizing the need for holistic solutions.

Research Questions and Emerging Data Needs:

The Living Lab seeks to answer questions about challenges faced by SMEs in filling training and job vacancies, the requirements of young people in the region, and how new data can improve the match between supply and demand. Emerging data needs include detailed insights from both enterprises and young people.

Data Availability and Limitations:

While statistical data on apprenticeships, job openings, and demographic information is available, limitations exist in linking this data at the NUTS 3 level. The challenge lies in obtaining accurate information about job seekers and apprenticeship seekers, as not all positions are reported to employment agencies.

The Living Lab Rhein-Hunsrück represents a proactive effort to bridge the gap between available opportunities and the potential workforce, ensuring a sustainable and vibrant future for the region.

The 14 RUSTIK Living Labs actors meet in Barcelona to foster knowledge exchange

 

The Pilot Region Kick-off was held in February 2023, and it was RUSTIK’s first in-person knowledge exchange, training, and networking event for partners from the 14 Pilot Regions. The event took place over two days in Barcelona and Osona in Catalonia.

During the Pilot Region Kick-off event, attendees had the opportunity to increase their understanding of the RUSTIK project and interact with the project coordinators. They also delved into how the Pilot Regions could add value to the initiative and gained indispensable knowledge for implementing RUSTIK’s approaches. It was also the first opportunity for exchanging ideas and insights with partners from 14 distinct rural regions across ten states.

During the first day of the meeting, the RUSTIK project was introduced, and the attendees learned about the key concepts that will play a key role throughout the project’s duration and began exploring how these concepts could be put into practice in their respective pilot regions. On the second day, the focus shifted from ideas to action. The attendees comprehended what to anticipate and accomplish as they started to put into action a RUSTIK Living Lab in their pilot regions.

The interactive workshops enabled the attendees to have a direct conversation with the leads in charge of each of the upcoming tasks in the Living Lab. They had the chance to ask questions and provide feedback about the topics covered, which included doing background research on their respective pilot regions led by Franco Mantino (CREA), identifying existing data and data needs led by Andreu Ulied (MCRIT), setting up and assessing their Living Lab led by Janet Dwyer (CCRI), and creating a policy panorama for their pilot region led by Petri Kahila and Juha Halme (UEF).

Our hosts in Catalonia

The hosts for the event were MCRIT and the Ersilia Foundation. On the first day, we visited Sant Miquel de Balenyà, one of RUSTIK’s 14 pilot regions. The town had been established after a train station was built in the area in 1875, and it now has 1,353 residents. The nearby Parc Natural de Montseny is a UNESCO biosphere reserve. The wider region, Osona (with a population of 165,229), is renowned for its sausages and has a ratio of over six pigs per person.

RUSTIK will run 14 Living Labs to foster sustainability transitions in rural communities

RUSTIK (Rural Sustainability Transitions through Integration of Knowledge for improved policy processes) is a four-year transdisciplinary research project. The project aims to enable rural communities’ actors and policymakers to design better strategies, initiatives and policies fostering sustainability transitions of rural areas.

The project, funded by the Horizon Europe programme, envisages an analysis of current adaption requirements and the support of effective rural policy-making processes for a better understanding of the different rural functionalities and characteristics as well as the potentials and challenges of rural areas. Environment, climate-energy, socio-economic and digital will be the key transition pathways studied in the project.

Living Labs in 14 European Pilot Regions in 10 European countries will be the central element to generate new insights into rural diversity and societal transformations. RUSTIK’s Living Labs will work on the identification of new data, methods of data collection, combined with current data sources to set up relevant indicators. The project will also focus on data integration and dissemination, to make information and analysis accessible and valuable for actors and policymakers; and to improve rural impact assessment. The final goal is to enhance policy strategies and governance structures. To do so, 3 sequential phases: situational review, data experimentation, and policy learning are envisaged.

This week the academic partners of the project got together for the kick-off meeting organised in Frankfurt by the project coordinator, the Institute for Rural Development Research (IfLS).

A multidisciplinary consortium
The consortium involves 30 partner organisations. Eight universities and four research institutes are providing scientific expertise within the fields of rural development, spatial planning and reporting, policy process, climate change and sustainability; two knowledge-based SMEs contribute to this with ready-to-apply technologies and approaches; and two NGOs act as intermediaries between university resp. SMEs.

Local and regional embedded partners ensure a practice-oriented implementation of the project. This comprises partners from five local or regional public administration, two local action groups (LAGs), three business associations and three regional development agencies.

Two European umbrella organisation representing rural mountainous stakeholders and regions, Euromontana,, and the European LEADER association for rural development, ELARD, are key multipliers towards other European regions and particularly support the dissemination towards the European Union.

The consortium efforts will contribute to enhancing existing European policy tools and approaches, most of all to support the European Green Deal, the European Digital Strategy, the European Pillar of Social Rights and the EU Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas of the European Union, the EU Cohesion policy, the common agricultural policy, and, in particular, the European agricultural guarantee fund (EAGF).

Follow the project: