Project description
A tool to reduce the digital divide between all regions
The sustainable, balanced and inclusive development of rural, coastal and urban areas hinges on access to last-mile connectivity and edge computing solutions. Tools to support business development and decision-making in the selection of an ecosystem of technologies is important to increase resilience to supply-chain disruptions and deficiencies. In this context, the EU-funded XGain project will adopt a practitioner-oriented approach to develop a Knowledge Facilitation Tool, designed to facilitate business model development and support decision-making in the selection of an ecosystem of technologies. The overall aim is to speed up the adoption of XGain solutions by the wider community, and ensure impact maximisation to the realisation of sustainable, balanced and inclusive development of rural areas.
Objective
New trends such as teleworking and e-commerce, as well as the need for a further increase of digital tools in all sectors (i.e. health, education, transportation, farming, etc.) demanded by the Covid-19 pandemic, are pointing out once again digital territorial inequalities, supply-chain disruptions and deficiencies in economic opportunities that hamper resilience and prosperity of rural communities. Accessibility and connectivity are key issues to mitigate this erosion of socio-territorial cohesion. However, identifying a common solution for equipping rural communities with increased access to services, opportunities and adequate innovation ecosystems ensuring that no one left behind is a challenging task, mainly due to the diversity of challenges and needs of different locations. In this respect, XGain fosters a sustainable, balanced and inclusive development of rural, coastal and urban areas by facilitating access to relevant stakeholders, such as municipalities, policymakers, farmers, foresters and their associations, to a comprehensive inventory of smart XG, last-mile connectivity and edge computing solutions, and of related assessment methods. The XGain overall project objective is, to deliver a Knowledge Facilitation Tool, facilitating business model development, supporting decision-making in the selection of an ecosystem of technologies, consisting of connectivity options and edge processing solutions, by following a multi-actor and practitioner-oriented approach, and by coherently assessing their socio-economic and techno-environmental effects, aiming at: increasing systemic resilience and energy efficiency; contributing to climate mitigation; and reducing the digital divides between different types of citizens, farms, sectors and regions.
Fields of science
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic healthepidemiologypandemics
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementcommercee-commerce
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementbusiness models
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesinfectious diseasesRNA virusescoronaviruses
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesforestry
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
106 82 ATHINA
Greece