What is it about?
The interfaces between science, society and policymakers need to be improved to enhance the use of new and existing knowledge, provide policymakers with the evidence they need and empower rural citizens to take part in policy-making, including designing future research priorities. In addition, there are still knowledge gaps regarding big challenges facing rural areas and how they will impact people and territories. One of the most important is demographic change. Current trends combine rural exodus, selective out-migration of women and young people and the arrival of newcomers, including migrants, highly-skilled former urban dwellers and retired people. The challenge is particularly acute in the farming sector. A deeper understanding of how rural communities, territories and businesses will evolve is needed to design new policies that would protect rural areas from the existing threat of decline and help them seize opportunities.
Scope:
Actions shall carry out foresight analyses of the development of primary production and related value chains and ecosystems in mountainous areas, in the coming decades, looking in particular at the positive and negative effects of climate change, of changes in policies influencing these areas and of broader socio-economic drivers.
The analysis shall benchmark production and land-use systems with regards to their capacity to sustainably improve performance and resilience under changing climate and broader conditions while securing public goods provision for uplands and lowlands, taking into account interactions across scales (field, territories and ecosystems) and sectors. Particular attention shall be paid to new or emerging products or practices which could develop sustainably under more favourable climatic conditions. Activities shall cover a variety of situations representing the diversity of environmental and socio-economic conditions in European mountains as well as the diversity of mountain crop, livestock and forest-based products and value chains. Public engagement of stakeholders in the activities will be key to securing relevant results.
Activities shall assess whether current policy approaches are fit for the future and shall deliver a set of renewed policy options, backed by a prior assessment of their possible impacts and accompanied by practical tools and recommendations to i) modernise relevant policy instruments available at EU and other governance levels (with a particular focus on CAP, quality policy, regional policy, climate and environment policies and innovation policy tools), ii) adapt value chain development strategies, and iii) secure long-term public good provision.
Expected Impact:
This topic aims to foster the design of future-proof rural policies. In the short to medium term, proposals are expected to:
- translate visions of future trends and dynamics and understanding of the associated drivers into strategic options for policy design, delivery and monitoring and maximise their uptake by the relevant policy levels
- ensure a wide outreach and engagement in most EU Member States through a balanced and representative coverage of activities
- help diversifying rural economic activities, improve the skills base and social capital by identifying and promoting policy options which enhance the attractiveness and sustainable development of rural areas and favour generation renewal
- maintain and enhance sustainable primary production, income generated by value chains and ecosystem service delivery in mountain areas through adequate policies and integrated strategies.
In the long term proposed actions shall contribute to improving quality of life, socio-economic prospects, resilience to climate change, job diversity and the attractiveness of rural areas.
In the same framework IED has already implemented several innovative projects which included innovative practices. If you are interested in applying for this call you could contact us and further discuss the available options.
