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SIMRA

Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas (SIMRA) is a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. SIMRA seeks to advance understanding of social innovation and innovative governance in agriculture, forestry and rural development, and how to boost them, particularly in marginalised rural areas across Europe, with a focus on the Mediterranean region (including non-EU) where there is limited evidence of outcomes and supporting conditions.

This Horizon 2020 project, coordinated by the James Hutton Institute, started on the 1st April 2016 for four years and ended in March 2020.

The partnership consists of 26 partners in Europe and in the Mediterranean Region. Four members of Euromontana participate: UHI Perth, ENRI, EURAC and SAB. Andreja Borec from Maribor University is part of the project’s Social Innovation Think Tank (advisory body).  Euromontana is the co-leader of the Work Package on Communication and Dissemination.

 

To find more on SIMRA, you can also:

 

 

 

 

Rationale

According to SIMRA, social innovation refers to “the reconfiguring of social practices, in response to societal challenges, which seeks to enhance outcomes on societal well-being and necessarily includes the engagement of civil society actors”. Re-inventing the role of actors, their interactions and their capacity to innovation, social innovation nurture the hope to overcome challenges such as ageing populations, outmigration or climate change. It is essential to consider local conditions and various intermediate factors to use social innovations for the development of marginalised rural areas.

If you wish to know more how social innovation occurs in practice, give a look at our collection of examples and online database of social innovation actions.

 

Key results

Social Innovation: A Practice Guide: A 100% hands-on publication to guide you, as actors on the ground, through the 7 crucial steps to design, develop and implement your social innovation in marginalised rural areas and beyond. Also available in FR, ES, IT and SR.

Policy Brief “How Policy Can Help bring about social Innovation in Rural Areas?” : to guide you, policy-makers from regional, national and European authorities to support the creation of an enabling environment with which social innovations can flourish. Also available in: FR, ES, IT, SR and AR.

MOOC on Social Innovation in Rural Areas: that will run for 3 weeks from 30th March 2020 and be freely available for one year on the FutureLearn platform, to steer researchers, students and practitioners across the landmarks of social innovation.

Database of social innovations: An interactive map to drive you, social innovator, practitioner and research, through more than 300 examples of social innovations in agriculture, forestry and rural developed in marginalised rural areas can be accessed.

7 Innovation Actions: to showcase you, actors on the ground, researchers and local authorities, on how to design and implement a social innovation action levering on collaborative learning, inspired discussion and cross-actors collaboration.

6 Brochures of good practices: to inspire you, actors on the ground, researcher and authority, with real examples of social innovations in forestry, agriculture and rural development:

Evaluation of Social Innovation: to provide you, evaluator, researcher, policy and decision makers, frameworks, approaches and methods to assess (qualitatively and quantitatively) the impacts of social innovation.

Evaluation Manual to help you, evaluators, practitioners, policy makers and scientists, in assessing the impacts of social innovation on the economy, society, environment and institutions.

Highlights from the final conference: held in Brussels (February 2020), the key points of SIMRA’s closing event will give you an overview on how social innovation can advance state-of-the-art.

 

Project Impacts

SIMRA contributed to advance understanding on how social innovation might contribute to the development of marginalised and rural areas. Based on this theoretical and evaluative framework, the project developed empirical analyses and pilot actions to operationalise social innovation in several domains (agriculture, forestry and rural development) and countries (EU and not EU). This provided a comprehensive mapping on the diversity of social innovation measures, in terms of governance, business models, objectives, forms of supports etc. Key findings served to create several transferable tools for practitioners, social innovators, scientists, policy and decision makers (see Key results). SIMRA’s impact was enhanced through its co-constructed, multi-actor approach in particular by involving SMEs, entrepreneurs, and social enterprises, networks and partnerships in the project.

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1 day ago

Euromontana
Today in The Parliament Magazine's special issue on rural Europe, we look at important demographic issues for our regions, ageing being one of them!🌄 Our member organisations like Diputación de Teruel - DPT & Sodebur are already adapting to demographic change and at European level we are at work to make Europe's mountains good places to live for all, including older people 👇library.myebook.com/theparliament/the-parliament-magazine-issue-558-april-2023-the-rural-edition/...🗞 We are in the pages of today's issue of The Parliament Magazine dedicated to rural Europe ! 🇪🇺Our partner Euromontana tells us how important it is for mountain areas to mitigate the effects of demographic change by adapting now to an ageing population.Read more about the actions of Programas.UE - DPT & Sodebur in this opinion piece! ⬇️library.myebook.com/theparliament/the-parliament-magazine-issue-558-april-2023-the-rural-edition/... ... See MoreSee Less
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3 days ago

Euromontana
Registration is still open for our LIFE Shepforbio event in May! 📆Farmers, shepherds, pastoral schools, nature park managers and many public and private actors in the pastoral sector will meet in Florac to discuss the role of pastoral schools in the management of natural habitats🌱🌄ℹ️ Logistics - agenda - registration form available here 👇www.euromontana.org/en/events/shepforbio-1st-international-conference-the-role-of-pastoral-school...📣 Save the date! First LIFE Shepforbio conference on pastoralism & natural habitats!📆 10 & 11 May 2023📌 Florac (France)You are involved in pastoralism or mountain habitat management? Manager of a natural site or a pastoral school? 🐑🌱Join us! ⤵️www.euromontana.org/en/events/shepforbio-1st-international-conference-the-role-of-pastoral-school...LIFE Programme DREAm Italia Parco Nazionale Foreste Casentinesi Regione Toscana Unione dei Comuni del Pratomagno Unione di Comuni Valdarno e Valdisieve Unione dei Comuni Montani del Casentino DAGRI UNIFI Sapienza Università di Roma LIFE Programme ... See MoreSee Less
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2 weeks ago

Euromontana
This morning we were at the first 🇪🇺 EU CAP Network Thematic Group on Forest-Dominant Rural Areas and Municipalities!🌲A key issue in the mountains for:🪵 local wood chains🌱 unique biodiversity🔥 forest fires, which we are currently addressing with Fire-ResElena Feo (Euromontana) shared the outputs of her group: The need to take a multi-actor approach, which is under-represented compared to agriculture 👥Forestry should be integrated in the innovation system #AKIS 🤔Find out more: bit.ly/tg1forest ... See MoreSee Less
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2 weeks ago

Euromontana
🆕 FIRE-RES published its first deliverable!It goes through the lessons learned from Extreme Wildfires and creates a common basis for action to improve resilience to fire 🔥🌲 Check it out! ⤵fire-res.eu/fire-res-publishes-its-first-deliverable-on-lessons-learned-on-extreme-wildfire-events/Centre de Ciència i Tecnologia Forestal de Catalunya, CTFC Instituto Superior de Agronomia CEF - Centro de Estudos Florestais CEABN InBIO European Forest Institute (EFI) Tecnosylva Πανεπιστήμιο Αιγαίου Ειδικός Κονδυλίων Έρευνας Πανεπιστημίου Αιγαίου CoLAB ForestWISE INRAE Cnrs.fr Tiems Escola Nacional de Bombeiros Euromontana Wageningen University & Research Agenzia Regionale Forestas VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research NIBIO Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa Institut i Geològic de Catalunya CONAF INESC TEC Spire Global TESAF Dipartimento Territorio e Sistemi Agro-Forestali UNIPD Autoridade Nacional de Emergência e Proteção Civil Corma Chile ... See MoreSee Less
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Today in @Parlimag, we look at important demographic issues for our regions, #ageing being one of them!

🌄 Our member regions are already adapting to #DemographicChange & at 🇪🇺 level we are at work to make Europe's mountains good places to live for all, including older people👇

Pour les régions de montagne et l'espace rural, l'économie #circulaire présente de nombreux avantages. #montagna, la revue du #SAB, présente des réalisations et des démarches inspirantes. #economiecirculaire
https://t.co/33WUFUDVdW

The 🇪🇺 @EU_CoR calls for place-based policies to tackle #BrainDrain and #depopulation!

We advocate for
1️⃣ economic diversification and quality of life
2️⃣ #RuralProofing to avoid harming these areas
3️⃣ analysing labour and population flows
https://t.co/eU9wbdo9dM

Join our May event on #pastoralism!

Plenaries, workshops & study visits to explore the role of pastoral schools in managing natural #habitats🌱🌄

ℹ️ Logistics - agenda - registration👇
https://t.co/HEyJZERSFp
@DREAm_Italia_EU @MOVINGH2020 @pastoralisme @IYRP2026 @PASTRES_erc

Today is #WorldWaterDay! Freshwater from mountains is fundamental for achieving global food security, as it is used by farmers to irrigate crops in many lowland agricultural regions. #MountainsMatter

https://t.co/OCdnyhl5y4

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