The RUSTIK Consortium is proud to collaborate with other projects to achieve a higher impact on rural communities’ actors and policymakers to design better strategies, initiatives, and policies fostering sustainability transitions in rural areas.

    The projects related to RUSTIK are listed below.

    Departing from an updated conceptualisation of rurality based on the multi-dimensional nature of contemporary rural-urban interrelations and interdependencies, GRANULAR will generate new insights for characterising rural diversity based on a multi-actor and interdisciplinary approach. Based on insights from Multi-Actor Labs, it will generate novel datasets using a wide range of methods and primary data, such as remote sensing, crowd-sourced data, mobile phone data and web-scraping.

    The EIP-AGRI Network that currently links and enhances communication and cooperation between everyone with a keen interest in using the available EU Horizon 2020 and CAP rural development funds for supporting innovation in agriculture, forestry and the broader rural economy.

    Rural-Urban Europe draws on findings from ROBUST – an innovative transdisciplinary rural-urban research project – and other European and international projects. ROBUST examines current governance systems, processes and practices in 11 different city-regions, and recommends more effective arrangements and better policy frameworks.

    SHERPA was a four-year project (2019-2023) with 17 partners funded by the Horizon 2020 programme. Its aim was to gather knowledge that contributes to the formulation of recommendations for future policies relevant to EU rural areas, by creating a Science-Society-Policy interface which provides a hub for knowledge and policy.

    MOVING aims to build capacities and co-develop – through a bottom-up participatory process that involves value chain actors, stakeholders and policy-makers – relevant policy frameworks across Europe for the establishment of new or upgraded/upscaled value chains that contribute to the resilience and sustainability of mountain areas to climate change.

    Founded in 2009, the Sustainability Transitions Research Network is the international network of scholars interested in sustainability transitions. The network has grown considerably since its inception and now numbers over 3000 scholars. It has also become increasingly diverse with respect to geography, methods and themes.

    The EU CAP Network is a forum through which National CAP Networks, organisations, administrations, researchers, entrepreneurs and practitioners can share knowledge and information (e.g. via peer-to-peer learning and good practices) about agriculture and rural policy.

    ICLEI engages at the local to global levels, shaping policy and sparking action to transform urban environments worldwide. We build connections across levels of government, sectors and stakeholder groups, sparking city-to-city, city-to-region, local-to-global and local-to-national connections. By linking subnational, national and global actors, policies, commitments and initiatives, ICLEI strengthens action at all levels, in support of sustainable urban development.

    The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation that works to build better policies for better lives. We draw on more than 60 years of experience and insights to shape policies that foster prosperity and opportunity, underpinned by equality and well-being.

    This department provides independent, evidence-based knowledge and science, supporting EU policies to positively impact society. 

    The project seeks to address regional inequalities by creating technical and economic solutions that result in new positive governance frameworks and political interventions for rural communities.
     
    RURBANIVE, led by ICCS from Greece, will develop 6 Rural/Urban Enablers (RUEs), innovations in six domains favouring bi-directional rural/urban synergies and a well-being economy.
    The project will develop six “rural-urban facilitators”: various technological resources to promote bidirectional synergies between the urban and rural environment and the well-being of the economy.
     
    In addition, it will develop a digital space, the ‘Community Store’ , where it will integrate facilitators with the user community to focus on connection policies between rural-urban communities .
     
    This transformative approach is based on the idea of ​​revolutionizing the dynamics of rural communities with urban ones and responding to the challenges of economic crises and the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic. In short, it is about addressing regional inequalities , especially in rural areas.

    SMART ERA led by FBK from Italy, will foster resilience in rural areas, by upgrading and co-designing, co-developing and co-validating with local communities a set of Smart Innovation Packages (SIPs) to tackle pressing socio-economic and environmental challenges and promote a community-led change.

    The collaboration focuses on involving citizens directly in finding solutions to depopulation challenges. By engaging locals in decision-making, CASPER paves the way for accepting necessary changes to services. Through well-designed local strategies, we boost community resilience, combining actions to mitigate and adapt to these changes. Policy enhancements will align more closely with the well-being of current residents.

    The overarching objective of our partnership is to optimize the utilization of available tools and resources, including Cohesion Policy funds, within the participating regions. By doing so, we aspire to promote sustainable development and increase the disaster risk resilience of rural communities across Europe.

    The main objective of ESIRA is to contribute to the rollout of place-based innovative social economy initiatives for rural inclusion and development in (marginalised) rural areas by supporting enabling frameworks, well-interconnected policy architecture and directly piloting innovative solutions which ultimately build more inclusive, resilient and prosperous rural areas.

    FUTURAL will prototype, test, and demonstrate community-led, social, technological and business innovations in different geographical and socio-cultural rural contexts. It will deliver a set of digital Smart Solutions to address key societal, environmental and financial challenges and empower rural communities to engage in change.

    RURACTIVE will develop smart, community-led, tailor-made, place-based and inclusive solutions in 12 pilot cases around Europe to drive a just and sustainable transition of rural areas.

    The EU-funded RURALITIES project will promote climate action and ecosystem-enhancing expertise in rural areas. It will focus on the creation of learning hubs known as RURALITIES, which use innovative methodologies and a comprehensive network of living labs to empower rural actors. The project’s multi-point approach involves various actors, disciplines, systems and sectors. It will also train over 1 000 facilitators and coordinate with local and regional authorities to support rural innovation

    SERIGO is a project delving into the vulnerabilities of European rural areas. This transformative endeavour, funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe research programme, aims to utilise community-based research and test innovative approaches through the social and solidarity economy in 5 pilot regions.

    The Rural Proofing project aims to enhance governance in rural areas by fostering inter-regional cooperation among seven public and private organizations from Spain, Estonia, Ireland, and Bulgaria. It seeks to make Rural Proofing—a routine part of decision-making—by ensuring policies and initiatives consider the specific needs of sparsely populated rural, coastal, and mountain areas. Current legislation often overlooks rural territories, leading to inefficient and inappropriate policies. Through collaborative work and the exchange of experiences, the project will develop a toolbox for assessing the impact of legislation on rural areas and create a SMART methodology for policy review. Ultimately, this initiative aims to reduce regional inequalities and ensure the rights and needs of rural citizens are met.

    The PAISACTIVO project (Firebreak Landscapes: activating rural space for a resilient territory) seeks to increase the resilience of the territory to fire risk by enhancing and improving the sustainable management of agroforestry land while protecting and revitalizing rural settlements and promoting their sustainability.

    How can the individual benefits of migration translate into societal benefits for the regions people leave behind? PREMIUM_EU seeks to find out and offer tailor-made policies that counter migration patterns which harm vulnerable regions.

    The SWIFT project aims to advance the position of women and LGBTQI+ persons in farming, and to investigate how agroecological processes can promote gender equality.

    BEATLES aspires to identify the individual, systemic and policy lock-ins and levers that influence entire food systems behavioural change and to develop transformation pathways of change to accelerate the systemic and systematic transition to climate-smart agriculture and smart farming technologies, fully aligned with the ambitions of the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies, and the new CAP at regional and EU levels.

    Tools4CAP (Innovative Toolbox empowering effective CAP governance towards EU ambitions) is a Coordination and Support Action project (2023-2026) within the Horizon Europe programme coordinated by Ecorys, gathering 21 partner organisations.
    The project is planned to support the design and monitoring of the national CAP Strategic Plans 2023-2027 and lay the foundations for a sound preparation of Post-2027 Strategic Plans through innovative methods and tools that could be replicated across the EU-27.
    The BOLSTER project aims to understand how marginalized communities are affected by European Green Deal (EGD)-related policies and to see whether involving them in decision-making processes increases the support for transition plans.
    The project, coordinated by Tilburg University, began on September 2022.
     
    The BOLSTER project will deliver new scientific evidence on decarbonization transition strategies and how they intersect with various dimensions of inequality, such as gender, race, age and class. It will conceptualize the principle of leaving no one behind by developing participatory governance models and transition guidelines based on climate justice and gender equality.

    TransformAr aims to develop and demonstrate products and services to launch and accelerate processes for adaptation to climate impacts in vulnerable regions and communities across Europe. Focus: DEMONSTRATION OF WATER-RELATED INNOVATION PACKAGES

    SMARTA-NET aims at building capacity among local authorities and other implementers. It has three main strands:
     
    Establish a European Rural Mobility Network (ERMN), to provide a forum and a voice for those working on rural mobility.
     
    Develop Tools & Guidelines on a number of topics, including (i) good practice in rural mobility; (ii) mobility supporting rural tourism; (iii) extending SUMPs to incorporate aspects of rural mobility; and (iv) financing structures for rural mobility.
     
    Implement training on the Guidelines in each of the member countries, in own language, for the ERMN members and other interested stakeholders.