SHERPA - Sustainable Hub to Engage into Rural Policies with Actors

Background and Objective

Understanding environmental, social and economic factors relating to European rural areas has been underpinned by extensive investment in research, from strategic science, to innovation actions for aiding delivery on-the-ground. The challenge is how to exploit this high quality body of research to develop policies suitable for achieving long-term visions and ensuring the support of society. The SHERPA project aims to gather knowledge that contributes to the formulation of recommendations for future policies relevant to EU rural areas, by creating a science-society-policy interface. The project aims to contribute to policy development in the following  three main areas:

• Provision of inputs for the design of future research policies, with a focus on the preparation of work programmes under Horizon Europe.
• Support for implementation of policies relevant to rural areas in the programming period 2021-2027; and
• Supporting for setting the direction of rural policy in the next programming period.

Approach

SHERPA relies on a network of rural interfaces to achieve its overall objectives of gathering relevant knowledge and opinions that contribute to the formulation of recommendations for future policies (e.g. agri-environmental policies) relevant to rural areas in the European Union. Rural interfaces are Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs) implemented across Europe and which act as open forums for exchanges of ideas, for co-learning and co-creating knowledge. They aim to engage citizens, researchers and policy-makers at local and EU levels in debates, to jointly develop strategic thinking and practical recommendations for the formulation of rural policies and research agendas at European and regional levels. The conclusion and recommendations achieved in the MAPs are presented in the project position papers.

More details of the project are available on the project website: https://rural-interfaces.eu/

The project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 862448.

Links and Downloads

rural-interfaces.eu