SmARt villages as new place for femAle entrepreneurship

Project Information

SARA

Grant agreement ID: 959871

DOI

10.3030/959871

Project closed

EC signature date 5 November 2020

Start date 28 January 2021

End date 27 April 2022

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 50 000,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

DESTINAZIONI INNOVATIVE SRLS
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SARA (SmARt villages as new place for femAle entrepreneurship)

Reporting period: 2021-01-28 to 2022-04-27

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

SARA project transformed the main obstacles for female entrepreneurship into opportunities like an ideal context to promote a specific model for women.
We apply the twinning advanced methodology as a way to exchange and promote the transfer of good practices among partners in the area of innovation support to women participation in startups created in small villages and to obtain the deliverable Design Option Paper. The project was conducted by sharing a set of information about partners and conducting peer learning on some identified steps:
▪ collect information about the local population and specifically about women participation in work force and in startup founding;
▪ investigate on the main obstacles women encounter in entrepreneurship initiatives;
▪ design specific innovation support in order to mitigate those obstacles and to give incentives to women in starting new activities;
▪ design new vision for smart villages also asnew form of collaboration and sharing local
knowledge.
We develop a new models for sustaining female entrepreneurship in order to reduce the gender gap.
The project used a 'twinning+' methodology based on peer learning among innovation agencies which include peer reviews at national & international level, the establishment of a guide of good practices & methodology and the comparison and transfer of practices to third parties. Partners developed a new models in this area that were shared by means of:
1. analysis of the state of the art to map competitive solution;
2. interviews, webinar and anonymous surveys to capture women unmet needs and policymakers/stakeholders opinions;
3. pilot testing;
4. sharing of models and results.
Although the twinning meetings in the context of the SARA project were held online due to Covid-19 restrictions, the Consortium applied several methodologies aimed at further engaging the audience in participatory activities.

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

In this list we have reassumed all the work performed from the start of the project:

-Ethics (report)
-Definition of logo and image and support materials;
-Website design;
-Video design and production (initial);
-State of the art report (Scenario Analysis)
-Questions design;
-Invitation letters;
-Workshop design;
-Workshops in each countries and final round table (3+1);
-Anonymous survey to acquire the opinion of female entrepreneurs (More than 160 survey was analysed);
-Survey of stakeholders (principal profiles mayors, policymaker, stakeholders, others) The respondents of the survey up to now are about 60;
-Advisory board round table;
-Video design and production (final);
-DOP report “Smart Villages: an unusual place for women entrepreneurs”;
-Others report.

All the work carried out was aimed at a structured collection of information and data in order to arrive at the drafting of the Design Options Paper (DOP).

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)

Not all villages can aspire to become a smart village. To transform itself into something that can be associated with the concept of smart village understood as the physical expression of a community, not necessarily located in rural areas, which:
-aims to develop intelligent solutions to address the challenges in their local context;
-builds on existing local strengths and opportunities to engage in a sustainable development process for the territories;
-relies on a participatory approach to develop and implement its strategies aimed at improving its economic, social and environmental conditions, in particular by promoting innovation and mobilizing the solutions offered by digital technologies;
-benefits from cooperation and alliances with other communities and actors in rural and urban areas;
it is necessary to have a starting point in which some physical and logistical barriers are resolved even if partially. It is difficult to have a smart village in an already disadvantaged condition from the start in which, potentially, these barriers cannot be overcome or eliminated.
So we have an essential prerequisite, not all places that are the expression of a community can aspire to this result and, therefore, resources must necessarily be oriented in those places where it is possible to achieve this result, in others words, places with excessive constraints cannot aspire to this transformation.
Basically, it is necessary to promote a sustainable use of available resources. Smart village is not a label for any place.

The project shed light on the need to create a connection between the women’s needs in entrepreneurial activity and the location of their activity. There is a gap in this sense that should be solved by proposing new ways to interact and support women. Smart villages provide access in terms of inclusion, sustainability and new entrepreneurship, and they support the co-creation of new tools for women's entrepreneurship through the inclusion of villages as an unusual place to create innovative businesses for a better work-life balance.

SARA visual identity