Rural areas and agriculture are facing major economic, social and environmental challenges regarding climate change, biodiversity loss and water supply. As a consequence, there is a need for new or improved innovative business and production models in rural areas that tackle these challenges and have impact on sustainability, both upstream and downstream of their business. NEXRUR´s main objective is to investigate the innovation dynamics and strategies for change in rural areas, through international cooperation between the EU and China, enabling farmers and their communities to develop, select and upscale new or improved sustainable business models and monitor their economic, social and environmental impact on rural resilience. The project is addressed to the Area A of the topic. NEXRUR will generate new knowledge on community-led agricultural business models, bringing together conceptual with practical research, thereby contributing to the generation of a knowledge base and facilitating co-design and co-innovation in a network of 22 diverse community cases (15 in the EU and 7 in China) and 7 selected start-up cases (5 in the EU and 2 in China) based on sustainability performance criteria. Besides, NEXRUR will verify the social and environmental performance of community-led agricultural businesses in different contexts, agri-food value chains, pedoclimatic zones and socioeconomic and environmental conditions in the EU and China. NEXRUR´s results comprise a summary of tested and improved pathways, strategies, tools and policy recommendations for the successful community-led businesses model development. Both the new knowledge generated and a monitoring framework for agricultural businesses and associated tool focused on environmental and social KPIs derived from the project, will be widely disseminated in the EU and China inspiring the uptake of new or improved production activities able to increase the prosperity of farmers.

The MED region includes more than 25 million hectares of forests and about 50 million hectares of other wooded lands. Climatic and socio-economic changes in this region could have serious consequences for forests, potentially resulting in the loss of ecosystem services and causing a wide range of economic, social, and environmental issues. The low competitiveness of the forest-wood supply chain in European Mediterranean (EUMED) countries is currently amplified by the missing or limited access of forest managers and companies to current and new digital technologies which appear to be out of date in certain key areas or fail to address some of the most pressing difficulties that the industry is expected to be confronting in the next decades. This rationale calls for the urgent implementation of a multi-actor approach to digitalization, starting from recognizing stakeholders’ needs and subsequently defining joint actions. To this end DigiMedFor's overall goal is to transform the technological landscape of the Mediterranean forest-wood supply chain by increasing its competitiveness, thus allowing the different stakeholders to better manage and supply multiple forest ecosystem services, including the traceability of wood origin from forests to end-users. In line with the EU forest strategy and the EU digital strategy, DigiMedFor will employ advanced and innovative digital solutions to improve the monitoring and management of forest resources along the supply chain from their origin up to the wood industry, optimising both the sustainability of wood production and traceability and delivery of ecosystem services. DigiMedFor will address the synergetic use of geo-spatial, AI, and modelling technologies, combining them with ICT.

The overarching objective of RUSTIK is to enable rural communities’ actors and policy makers to design better strategies, initiatives and policies fostering sustainability transitions of rural areas, through an advanced understanding of different rural functionalities, characteristics and future scenarios of rural areas, their potentials and challenges. Central specific objectives are to provide (1) a robust methodological framework for functional rural areas, (2) databases integrating data of different types and sources, (3), improved strategies and governance approaches for rural decision makers and stakeholders, and (4) improved approaches for rural impact assessment and decentralised rural proofing. RUSTIK aims to substantially 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. RUSTIK addresses the topic by illuminating three key transitions in rural areas, i.e. (1) socio-economic, (2) climate change and environmental, and (3) digital. Five types of rural functions are RUSTIK’s starting point for characterising the diversity of rural areas and their capacity to respond to these transitions. In order to achieve its overarching and specific objectives, RUSTIK will (1) create a conceptual basis for functional rural areas, transition and resilience of rural areas building on previous research, (2) co-design data collection approaches, and (3) investigate policy frameworks and coordination mechanisms. Closely interrelated with all of these activities, Living Labs in 14 European Pilot Regions in 10 European countries will be the central element of an action-oriented multi-actor approach to researching rural diversity and societal transformations.

Key contemporary trends, such as climate change, gender inequalities and the COVID-19 pandemic, bring new challenges to European rural areas. Change also brings opportunities to foster more resilient, inclusive and sustainable rural regions, such as created by the digital and ecological transitions. However, there is a need for all individuals and communities to participate in rural innovation. Traditionally, however, rural women’s employment opportunities and contribution to innovation has been overshadowed, and often suppressed, by for example a patriarchal ethos. FLIARA (Female-Led Innovation in Agriculture and Rural Areas) uniquely proposes a transdisciplinary, innovative methodology to improve understanding, awareness and recognition of women’s role in a more sustainable rural future, as well as develop proposals for how more effective policy and governance frameworks can support this and enhance women’s capacity to contribute to it. FLIARA will combine futures and case study methods, alongside network building and policy benchmarking, while being underpinned by a co-created conceptual and assessment framework. Using a unique foresight approach, FLIARA will identify visions for sustainable farm and rural futures and the sustainability innovations needed to realise these visions. Using a thematic case-study approach, project partners will investigate women-led innovations on farms and in wider rural areas looking at their pathways in the innovation ecosystem. Building on the power of social networks, a Community of Practice will be developed with women identified throughout the case studies networking alongside key innovation policy and governance stakeholders. The Community of Practice Network will occur in conjunction with a Campaign of Visibility for women-led rural innovations, spotlighting women as key innovation actors. Project outcomes will result in end-user ready resources, including policy proposals and practical tools supporting women-led innovation.