SMART community-led transition for Europe's Rural Areas

Project Information

SMART ERA

Grant agreement ID: 101084160

DOI

10.3030/101084160

EC signature date 6 December 2023

Start date 1 January 2024

End date 31 December 2027

Funded under

• Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

Total cost

€ 7 013 862,50

EU contribution

€ 6 592 887,50

Coordinated by

FONDAZIONE BRUNO KESSLER
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SMART ERA (SMART community-led transition for Europe's Rural Areas)

Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Depopulation is occurring in rural areas causing ageing, fewer job opportunities, degradation of infrastructures and a decreasing offer of services of general interest. However, the revolution in digitalisation with an increase of remote and location-free work opportunities is offering the chance to redirect some migration flows back. Interventions are needed to take up this opportunity and build on trends such as multi-local living to promote new greener, smaller, sustainable and innovative growth models. SMART ERA will foster resilience, by upgrading and co-designing, co-developing and co-validating with local communities a set of smart solutions, integrated within Smart Innovation Packages (SIPs) able to tackle pressing socio-economic and environmental challenges and promote community-led transition pathways. This can be further split into 6 Strategic Objectives (SO):
SO1 DEFINE a multi-dimensional methodology for smart and community-led transition in rural areas.
SO2 MOTIVATE rural communities and CO-DESIGN with and for them the SIPs to foster a change in their territories by tackling a variety of challenges and fostering a sense of community and cooperation.
SO3 DEVELOP or CUSTOMISE technological components identified as the most suitable for the pilots and INTEGRATE them into 6 SIPs.
SO4 ACTIVATE the local communities and CO-VALIDATE with them the methods and solutions in the 6 pilots, representative of diverse social and geographical contexts. TRANSFER them to 4 follower communities.
SO5 CAPITALISE on lessons learned to DELIVER recommendations to improve national/EU policies and governance frameworks.
SO6 DESIGN and IMPLEMENT systematic and interactive dissemination, communication and exploitation and FOSTER macro-regional networking.
The project draws on social innovation, participatory design, behavioural science, policy analysis, and rural sociology to guide co-design, community engagement, and policy alignment. Motivational strategies, and co-creation sessions are grounded in SSH methodologies to ensure inclusivity and ethical integrity.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During RP1, SMART ERA layed the scientific and technical foundations for a rural smart, community-led transition through: 1. SMARTNESS ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY (SESAM) - assessing rural smartness across 6 dimensions: Enabling Factors, Mobility, Economy, Governance, Services, Environment; 2. SIP CO-DESIGN TOOLKIT - created and applied across the pilots, resulting in an analogue and digital version. 3. IDENTIFICATION OF TECHNOLOGICAL COMPONENTS FOR THE SIPs - preparatory work for developing and integrating digital solutions into SIPs was completed. Internal mapping of available technological components was conducted, while the rest will be developed through FSTP; 4. PILOTS ACTIVATION AND TRANSFER FRAMEWORK - the pilots engaged local actors, completed gap analyses, and defined SIP action plans. Inputs from pilots fed into the first Open Call; 5. POLICY AUDIT - Guidelines for Policy Audit based on EU Better Regulation principles and rural proofing. Pilots began auditing local policies relevant to smart rural transitions. Project results contributed to 7 EU-level consultations and policy opinions, increasing the alignment between local experimentation and policy innovation; 6. DATA ECOSYSTEM AND INTEROPERABILITY FRAMEWORK - a methodology based on shared vocabularies, APIs, and FAIR/GDPR-compliant standards. A data dashboard mockup was presented and refined and a first prototype is under development. A geoserver-based spatial data platform was established to manage and visualize datasets sourced from Eurostat, OSM, GTFS, OpenCellid, and local sources.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

During RP1, SMART ERA produced results that lay the groundwork for transformative change in rural innovation:
1. The Smartness Assessment Method (SESAM) provides the first scalable, multi-dimensional approach to assess rural "smartness" across six key domains, empowering data-driven planning and may become a standardized tool for EU-wide rural diagnostics.
2. SIP Co-design Toolkit. A hybrid (analogue + digital) toolkit supporting rural communities in collaboratively shaping Smart Innovation Packages (SIPs) can serve for community-led innovation across other EU rural areas.
3. Pilot Action Plans and Technology Scoping. 6 pilot regions co-designed detailed SIP Action Plans aligned with local priorities, defining tailored technological and non-technological needs, forming the basis for the upcoming Open Call. These ensure high contextual relevance, enhancing the likelihood of effective deployment and uptake.
4. A flexible Data Ecosystem and Interoperability Framework was designed, along with a shared geoserver and dashboard infrastructure. This infrastructure allows real-time insights and comparability across territories, essential for replication, monitoring, and policymaking.
5. Policy Audit Guidelines and Feedback into EU Processes. Policy audit tools and methodologies have already fed into 7 EU-level consultations and opinions. Pilots have begun audits to identify barriers and enablers for smart rural innovation. This supports evidence-based policy design and can contribute to rural-proofing mechanisms.
Further research is needed on scaling SESAM across different rural typologies, while the co-design toolkit can be refined with user feedback, and real-world demonstration of SIPs in diverse contexts will be necessary to validate impacts. As the SIPs move from co-design to implementation, particularly those involving tech components, tailored IPR guidance and business development support will be essential, especially for third-party innovators selected through the Open Call. Several results are relevant beyond EU, so international collaboration and uptake mechanisms will be explored. SESAM and the interoperability framework should be advanced toward formal standardisation, especially to support comparability, benchmarking, and monitoring at EU level. Findings from the policy audits should feed into national rural strategies and contribute to shaping a supportive regulatory environment for community-led, data-informed rural innovation.

SMART ERA Co-creation Session

SMART ERA Consortium

SMART ERA SIP Co-creation Toolkit Digital version

SMART ERA SIP Co-creation Toolkit Analogue version