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121 Members
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3 Discussions
Description
Smart Villages by now has become a well-known and acknowledged concept across Europe and its huge potential is widely recognised to transform rural communities through smart (strategic) vision using social, technological and digital innovations as means. As such, Smart Villages has the ability to address pressing challenges at the local rural community level such as depopulation, ageing, lack of public services, lack of connectivity and mobility, lack of employment and climate change. However, the implementation of Smart Villages through the CAP and other policies still has a lot of scope for improvement. Most rural stakeholders are still uncertain about how to apply the Smart Villages concept within their territories and domains. The challenge remains to “make Smart Villages happen” more widely, especially to ensure that rural communities have access to a diverse range of (EU and other) funding to design and implement smart village strategies and solutions, technical support is available to build-capacity at the local level, dedicated Smart Village policies are developed at all levels (European, national and regional). Due to the uncertainties around the Smart Villages approach, there is a strong need to share relevant experience at all levels, acknowledging the pilot nature of this initiative, and learning from both successes and failures.
Objectives of this Community Group:
- Exchange experience and ideas on Smart Villages to overcome uncertainties about the practical implementation of Smart Villages, with the ultimate goal of supporting the emergence of Smart Villages across Europe.
- Raise awareness about emerging Smart Villages developments in Member States and share practical examples at all levels: including the local community level (smart village strategies and initiatives), as well as policy level (Smart Village policies)
- Give voice to rural communities in European Smart Villages and Rural Pact exchanges.
- Create a space for stakeholders to initiate joint actions on (find partners for) Smart Villages, including applications for international Smart Villages projects, organisation of joint events, develop joint (research) ideas, etc.
- Demonstrate how Smart Villages can effectively contribute to achieving the objectives of the Rural Pact and create synergies between Smart Villages and Rural Pact actions.
- Help the European Smart Villages Observatory members to continue their exchanges beyond the duration of the Smart Rural 27 project.
Group coordinator
- Edina Ocsko (Smart Village Network Services)