Blog – Page 5 – SIMRA Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas

A look back on the smart eco-social villages pilot initiative

11 March 201914th March 2019Lucía Lopez MarcoLeave a comment

The Pilot Project on Smart Eco-Social Villages, initiated by the European Parliament, has been carried out by a consortium consisting of Ecorys, Origin for Sustainability and R.E.D. under the responsibility of the European Commission (Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development). The potential effect of this Pilot Project is to shape the on-going discussion on the future of the “Smart Village” policy. This pilot initiative is working alongside the ENRD thematic group on the same subject. The final event of the pilot initiative took place in Brussels on February 21^st and 22^nd, 2019.Continue reading

Changing the narrative of refugee inclusion – SIMRA at the European Economic and Social Committee

14 February 201914th February 2019Lucía Lopez MarcoLeave a comment

“It is not about either basic needs OR social integration. These two are parallel processes that can help one another”, says Mari Bjerck, researcher at Eastern Norway Research Institute and involved in SIMRAs Innovation Action (IA) in the rural area of Gudbrandsdalen, Norway.Continue reading

SIMRA participated in the debate on “Smart villages: Integrated strategic approaches to innovation in rural areas”

8 February 20198th February 2019Lucía Lopez MarcoLeave a comment

On 29^th January 2019, Marie Clotteau, Director of Euromontana, presented SIMRA to the NAT (Commission for Natural Resources) members of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) during a debate on “Smart Villages: integrated strategic approaches to innovation in rural areas”.Continue reading

Maria Nijnik honoured with IUFRO Scientific Achievement Award

7 February 20197th February 2019Lucía Lopez MarcoLeave a comment

SIMRA’s Scientific Coordinator, Dr. Maria Nijnik, has been honoured with the Scientific Achievement Award given by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), organisation that gathers more than 15,000 scientists in 700 member organizations from 125 countries. Nijnik wishes to thank IUFRO for the prize and has stated that she feels “truly happy bringing this award to the James Hutton Institute and to the SIMRA team”.
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A song to fight rural depopulation

1 February 20199th October 2019Lucía Lopez MarcoLeave a comment

Molina de Aragón is located at the heart of the biggest European demographic desert. Re-named as ‘Serranía Celtibérica’, this desert unites rural territories from different Spanish provinces, such as Saragossa, Teruel, Cuenca, Soria or Guadalajara. Having an area double that of Belgium, this desert hosts only 487,417 inhabitants at a density of 7.72 hab/km2. Moreover, this area has the largest ageing index and the lowest birth rate of the European Union, with a population density lower than Lapland.
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SIMRA’s brochure update!

30 November 20185th February 2019Lucía Lopez MarcoLeave a comment

SIMRA project has passed its half-way point! And over these two years we have been working hard: we have agreed on a definition for social innovation, characterised marginalised rural areas across Europe and the Mediterranean region and collected hundreds of examples of social initiatives, 50 of which are public in our database. We have also launched 12 case studies and 6 innovation actions that will activate rural territories and disseminate new knowledge to policy-makers and practitioners.

Fostering local development in the Mediterranean via tourism and cultural heritage

30 October 201830th October 2018Lucía Lopez MarcoLeave a comment

Tourism and cultural heritage are two strong vectors of local development, which was explained at length during a session of the European Week of Cities and Regions 2018. The European Commission, a Greek regional authority and a social entrepreneur participated in this session to share their experiences and the solutions they try to implement each at their own scale.
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