RuralBioUp strengthened the development of sustainable, locally anchored bioeconomy solutions in rural areas across Europe. Working through nine Regional Hubs in Italy, France, Ireland, Portugal, Latvia, Slovenia and Romania, the project brought together farmers, SMEs, researchers and public authorities to identify local resources, co-design value-chain opportunities and support the transition toward circular and bio-based practices. RuralBioUp delivered extensive capacity-building activities, including training sessions, mentoring and coaching, regional networking events and study visits, altogether supporting more than 10.000 stakeholders. These activities strengthened regional cooperation, improved innovation readiness and enabled stakeholders to adopt new technologies and business models. Each Regional Hub developed an Action Plan and a sustainability pathway to ensure continuity beyond the project’s lifetime. RuralBioUp also collaborated with sister projects to produce a shared policy paper and its own policy brief, providing recommendations for integrating the bioeconomy into rural development strategies and EU policy frameworks. A central achievement of the project is RuralSpot, an open-access digital platform that consolidates all project outputs and tools. It integrates practical training materials, mentoring resources, funding guidance, study visit documentation, Action Plans, lessons learned and policy outputs. The platform also features a dedicated Community section showcasing synergies with other EU initiatives, enabling users to explore solutions, access methodologies and connect with relevant networks. Overall, RuralBioUp supported rural communities in enhancing their innovation ecosystems, increasing awareness of bioeconomy opportunities and accelerating the uptake of bio-based solutions, with all resources openly accessible through RuralSpot.
