Summer School on Rural Enterprise, Heritage and Tourism Development – Registration is open!

Five European Union funded Horizon 2020 projects – Rubizmo, Ruritage, Ruralization, Liverur and Polirural focusing on Rural Enterprise, Tourism and Heritage Development have come together to offer a free short online Summer School over the mornings on July 13th, July 20th, July 27th and August 3rd.

The aim of the programme is to showcase some of the more significant rural development tools that have been developed by these projects in recent years can be used in a wide range of influential roles across rural leadership especially in coaching, teaching, policy making and advisory contexts.

This programme is targeted at teachers, lecturers, rural enterprises and agriculture & business advisors as well as activists, policy makers and leaders in rural community development. If you have an influential role in rural development, participation in this summer school will equip you to use the most innovative rural development tools in your practice that have been developed by these four Horizon 2020 projects.

Workshops take place online (via zoom) on July 13th, July 20th, July 27th and August 3rd from 10:30 to 1:15pm CET. This programme is free to attend but registration in advance is necessary and is possible for individual or all sessions. After registration you will receive some short introductory material in advance of each session which will help you make the most of these short interactive workshops.

Register here to participate. You can find here more information about the online Summer School.

Presentation of PoliRural project at the TV show YPAITHROS

On the 2nd of June, 2021, the TV show YPAITHROS that is broadcasted by the local channel of the Region of Central Greece, STAR, hosted four members of the Greek pilot, Ms. Ioanna Kalyva, Head of Project Management Department at GAIA ΕPΙCHEΙRΕΙΝ, Ms. Nikoleta Darra, Research Associate of the Agricultural University of Athens, Ms. Panagiota Louka, Scientific Advisor on Program Management at NEUROPUBLIC and Ms Athanasia Dampasi, Scientific Associate Region of CentraL Greece, on a discussion concerning PoliRural project.

During the virtual meeting, the prevailing rural conditions across Europe and the factors that led to the creation of the project as well as its objectives were initially described. The implementation and the methods followed were analyzed, as well as the current outcomes and the main factors that affect the rural development of the area were described. In addition, proposals that can provide solutions to the problems faced by the inhabitants of the prefecture were presented.

Particular emphasis was placed on the incentives that can be given to young people to choose to stay permanently in the rural area as well as the factors that can be developed to improve the livelihoods of the existing residents of the province. More specifically, the described incentives concern the existence of the possibility of scientific and professional training of the inhabitants, the existence of technological infrastructures but also lower taxes.

Last but not least, an attempt is made to assess the future situation that will prevail in the Region of Central Greece through the use of models that take into account both qualitative and quantitative parameters but also possible changes related to demographic change, the effects of climate change, technological development and possible policies that can to be implemented.

You can watch the video in Greek here.

PoliRural Semex (Semantic Explorer) Video

PoliRural has developed a Semantic Explorer (Semex.io) tool based on Text Mining, capable of extracting information from unstructured data and display the results on clear graphical and textual outputs. It can provide useful insights to researchers involved in Foresight and other research activities that contribute to empower policymakers, in particular those involved in rural development. Specific functionalities have been developed to assist researchers and facilitators involved in these specific activities.

The portal is the gateway to a large library of more than 4000 documents related to European rural areas. Sources have been gathered by PoliRural pilots ensuring a high level of expertise in rural related topics.

A video that contains an overview on this tool and how to used has been developed, and you can view it here.

You can also try the Semantic Explorer tool in the following link: https://semex.io/