Rural areas in the EU member states, especially the new ones and their neighbours participating in EUprogrammes, face a challenge to meet the EU reguirements and global changes: environmental issues, extreme (and changing) climate conditions, changes in agricultural policy and systems that require a certain specialisation, or the need to develop solutions for the loss of farm income, finding additional sources of income. Within all these aspects of rural development, innovation is another key issue. We are working together with universities, innovation centres and several other partners in this field, searching for new opportunities and solutions to the given challenges.
We can offer a perspective on the mentioned issues separately, but most of all we prefer dealing with the challenges by giving an integrated view on rural development, for example by presenting a vision of what possibilities and ideas we see for new activities and developments, rather than presenting a detailed plan forone subject (agriculture, landscape, tourism etc.). Thereby we can refer to examples from ongoing and past EU-projects, such as the INTERREG IVB project Vital Rural Area, follow up projects such as SELF and Green Valley being set up in INTERREG VB, or from the LEADER+-network.
Another example, for a rural development plan we can assist you by setting up a structure, contacting EU-agencies and other (regional) partners, or arrange brainstorm sessions and training for the development and implementation of programme and projects.