International scientific project “SHERPA - Sustainable Hub to Engage into Rural Policies with Actors”, implemented under the HORIZON 2020 - RUR-2018-2020 Rural Renaissance programme, Grant agreement no. 862448, speed up even in the face of COVID-19. The project started in October 2019 and will run for four years. With 21 EU Member states covered by consortium partners (Belgium, France, Greece, Sweden, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, UK, Germany, Slovenia, Portugal and other) SHERPA ensures a wide geographical coverage of Europe. Networks such as ERDN and Nordregio provide mechanisms to engage with expertise in other EU Member States not explicitly covered by the consortium. Researchers from the Lithuanian Institute of Agrarian Economics are participating in the project as members of the ERDN expert network.
The second meeting of all consortium partners took place on April 27, 2020, using the “Cisco Webex” communication platform, which provided an opportunity for 54 SHERPA consortium participants from 21 countries to interactively discuss the progress of the project, key challenges and possible solutions. The first stage of the project implementation aimed at creating the basis for project implementation. All consortium partners have successfully met the target set for the initial period: 20 Dynamic Action Plans have been developed, 20 Multi-Actor Platforms for inclusive rural policy have been set up, and a 'pilot exercise' has been completed. 40 acting Multi-Actor Platforms for inclusive rural policy in Europe are planned to the end of SHERPA project.
Researchers from the Lithuanian Institute of Agrarian Economics have also developed a Dynamic Action Plan and established one of the 20 Multi-Actor Platforms for inclusive rural policy, envisaged in the first phase of SHERPA project, uniting scientific, societal and political stakeholders.
On April 23 preparations for the consortium partners' meeting took place in four clusters of the SHERPA project using the interactive communication platform “Microsoft Teams”. In one of the clusters of these meetings, the project partners from Denmark, Greece, Poland, Romania and Lithuania shared their experience in establishing Multi-Actor Platforms, discussed the challenges of the first phase of the project, research methodology, work organization, stakeholder involvement changes due to COVID-19 pandemics, etc.
The next challenge for the 20 established Multi-Actor Platforms across Europe is to discuss, reflect and prepare insights on a long-term vision for European rural development until 2040 in seven thematic areas:
- Demographic shift: depopulation, ageing
- Climate change and environmental services
- Shift in production and diversification of the rural economy
- Infrastructure and basic services
- The rise of digitalisation and smart ruralities
- Inequalities and well-being in rural areas
- Land-use competition
The task of each of the established Multi-Actor Platform is to identify the most relevant development directions for the future of the region, reflecting the tendencies of rural development specific to the region. Summarized reflections and insights from the Multi-Actor Platforms in a form of Position Paper will be provided to the European Commission and used as visions for European rural development up to 2040 in the European Parliament's deliberations.
SHERPA project comprehensively addresses the full scope of the H2020 Coordination and Support Action for the topic “RUR-01-2018-2019 - D Rural society-science-policy hub”.
Total project budget is 5 mln. Eur. Project duration: 4 years.
More detailed information is soon to be available online.
Project coordinator in Lithuania dr. Živilė Gedminaitė-Raudonė
tel. (8 5) 261 7978, el.p.zivile.gedminaite@ekvi.lt;
tel. (8672) 00413, el.p. rita.vilke@ekvi.lt
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