Solutions to address the most pressing rural challenges: RURACTIVE Dynamos continue their journey towards a more sustainable future

Throughout January and February 2025, the RURACTIVE Dynamos held another round of successful workshops with their local stakeholders. This second local workshop, titled ‘Learning from Others’, built on the development of common visions and main challenges in their Rural Innovation Ecosystem discussed in the first local workshop. It aimed to explore, identify and co-develop solution proposals tailored to address each of the identified challenges. Dynamos embarked on a collaborative process and creative dialogue with more than 260 members of their local communities, such as representatives of the municipality and regional public administration, entrepreneurs and investors, cultural professionals and many others.

Throughout the workshop, Dynamos discussed solutions that had been previously implemented in other territories, as documented in the RURACTIVE Solutions Catalogue, including those from other RURACTIVE Dynamo regions. Dynamos were able to take inspiration from these good-practice examples and tailor elements to address their current local needs and challenges. Participants were asked to reflect on factors including the replicability of the solutions, the most difficult or interesting aspects of the solution implementation and the roles of different stakeholders in the implementation process. While designing their local solution proposals, stakeholders were further called upon to consider how to engage and empower groups at risk of social exclusion and under-representation, defined by RURACTIVE as young people, people over 65, long-term unemployed, migrants and minorities, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Additionally, stakeholders discussed how each solution could address and integrate the RURACTIVE cross-cutting priorities of biodiversity, social justice and inclusion, climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation.

The main outcome of this workshop was a set of new solution proposals that best address the specific challenges identified by each Dynamo. These proposals will be further developed during a third local workshop, titled ‘Fine Tuning’ which is scheduled for March and April 2025. During this workshop, Dynamos will assess the feasibility of the selected solutions according to RURACTIVE’s key principles, including the determination of the economic and financial viability of each solution.

Stay tuned for more updates as the work progresses!

The workshop in Zakarpattya, Ukraine

The workshop participants in Zakarpattya, Ukraine

The workshop on Gotland, Sweden

The workshop in Scotland, UK

The workshop in Zadar, Croatia

The workshop in Zagori, Greece

Group work in Zagori, Greece

The workshop in Andalucía, Spain