INSPIRE

Smart development of rural areas is key for the future of Europe. Digitisation and the chance to explore the potential of ICT are key factors to enable rural communities to become smarter, ie more attractive for locals, visitors and newcomers, countering the circle of depopulation and economic decline via the improvement of policy instruments (PIs) towards a more focused and more integrated territorial planning, possibly going further beyond the sectorial aspects of ERDF/EAFRD/ESF to the benefit of local people and business. INSPIRE PPs work on LEADER, ROP, ESF, local and natl PIs to inspire a smart transition in aware and forward-looking rural communities enabled by digitisation and working in the 6 dimensions of the smart-village rationale (Economy, Environment, Governance, Living, Mobility, People), improving the PIs to future-proof their communities and inspire others. PPs include LP LAG South Warmia+Olsztynek (PL), PPs Ballyhoura (IE), IFLS+Lahn-Dill-Wetzlar (DE), IFKA (HU), Zemgale (LV) and Cantabria (OPE and RMEF, ES) aiming at improving and integrating their PIs and at enabling smart(er) PIs for rural areas for better and more inclusive living conditions and more innovative enterprises. AP Poliedra (IT) manages the interregional knowledge exchange with interconnected meetings among the PPs, namely Interregional Workshops (IW), Study Visits (SV), Regional Stakeholder Meetings (RM for the involvement of local actors) and leads contacts with Macroregional Strategies and with other smart-rural projects. The enhanced PIs will incorporate the lessons learnt in the knowledge exchange process and will aim at proposing newly focused, smarter, more territorialised and wide ranging PIs for rural areas. It is also the aim of INSPIRE to work in the New European Bauhaus framework, towards rural territories that are enriching, sustainable and inclusive, responding to local needs beyond mere functionality, in harmony with the environment and encouraging social dialogue.