Rural areas across Europe are facing a diversity of challenges while undergoing transitions, i.e. processes of profound change. RUSTIK addresses the topic by illuminating three key transitions in rural areas, i.e. (1) socio-economic/demographic, (2) climate change and environmental, and (3) digital.
The overarching objective of RUSTIK is to enable rural communities’ actors and policy-makers to design better strategies, initiatives and policies fostering rural sustainability transitions. This is to be achieved through creating 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.
The key expected impacts of RUSTIK are:
(1) In the course of the project, rural actors including local and/or regional administrations and policy-makers, rural communities’ civil society and economic actors are expected to have improved their skills and capacities to generate knowledge together. At this, it will be ensured that the co-created approaches are practice-oriented and that they are suitable for different European contexts and capacities of local actors. The empowerment of rural actors will be achieved by the multi-actor and transdisciplinary approach implemented through Living Labs in 14 Pilot Regions across Europe.
(2) RUSTIK will provide new methods, databases, intervention design principles and improved policy impact assessment approaches implemented in the 14 Pilot Regions as part of project activities. Based on this, more evidence- and place-based, integrated and tailored policies, strategies and governance frameworks will be delivered. These will directly influence local decision-making to manage transitions in a sustainable, balanced and inclusive manner.
Social sciences and humanities (SSH) are well represented in the consortium through the participation of different academic and research partners. Their expertise is essential for the achievement of project objectives. SSH partners hold responsibility in all steps of the work performed, including synthesis and formulating policy recommendations and disseminating results. SSH partners work in close collaboration with partners both from other scientific fields like environmental and data sciences, and with local practice actors.
