Strengthening rural communities' resilience to shocks

The destination supports the European Green Deal and contributes to Europe’s competitiveness and sustainable prosperity by supporting the sustainable development and the just and fair transition of rural, coastal and urban communities.

This destination will support the EU Commission priorities ‘Sustaining our quality of life: food security, water and nature’ and ‘Supporting people, strengthening our societies and our social model’.

R&I will support knowledge needs stemming from the EU vision for agriculture and food, the Commission strategy for generational renewal in agriculture, and continue to support the implementation of common agricultural policy and the long-term vision for EU’s rural areas.

R&I activities in this destination will also contribute to achieving the objectives of the strategy for European life sciences, the EU start-up and scaleup strategy, the new EU bioeconomy strategy and the food 2030 initiative.

R&I will complement the new European Bauhaus (NEB) initiative by transformation of spaces and integrating the core NEB values.

Overall, R&I activities under this destination will contribute to supporting people and communities while strengthening our societies and our social model.

R&I will also support communities to work and prosper with nature, preserving biodiversity and ecosystem, and scaling-up the use of Nature-based Solutions, in line with the objectives of the EU climate adaptation strategy and the EU Nature Restoration Regulation.

R&I actions under this Destination will encourage international cooperation, in line with the global approach on R&I. The Destination supports unlocking the unique assets for research and innovation of the EU outermost regions, in line with the EU strategy for outermost regions^[1].

Expected Impact: Proposals for topics under this destination should set out credible paths to "sustainably developing rural, urban and coastal areas". More specifically, proposed topics should contribute to one or more of the following expected impacts:

• Communities are empowered to act for a transformative change to increase their sustainability and resilience, through better access to knowledge and tools (including digital ones), and are better prepared to adapt to climate change and to achieve climate neutrality as well as to address environmental issues, including biodiversity loss.
• Rural communities are prepared to anticipate and respond to social, economic and environmental shocks and are attractive for young innovators.
• Urban and peri-urban communities can access affordable, healthier, nutritious and environmental-friendly food, benefitting from empowered local food entrepreneurship and socially innovative approaches, increasing resilience and inclusiveness.

[1] COM(2022) Putting people first, securing sustainable and inclusive growth, unlocking the potential of the EU’s outermost regions.

Expected Outcome:

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• rural communities become more resilient by benefiting from an improved capacity to anticipate, prepare for, and recover from climate, environmental and socio-economic shocks;
• local governance is strengthened and becomes more inclusive, benefiting from the active involvement of young people in responding to various types of shocks;
• rural specificities regarding crisis preparedness and management are better understood at all governance levels, allowing for more targeted provisions in crisis preparedness and management plans.

Scope:

The successful proposals should contribute to fostering a sustainable, balanced, equitable and inclusive development of rural areas, supporting the implementation of the long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas and its objectives that see EU rural areas stronger, connected, resilient and prosperous by 2040. The successful proposals should also support the vision for agriculture and food and its objective to foster fair living and working conditions in vibrant rural areas, and to the Commission priority to sustain our quality of life by boosting climate adaptation, preparedness and solidarity.

The geopolitical situation and climate change pose new challenges that people must confront at the local level. Research and innovation can support rural communities with evidence and participatory methodologies to anticipate, prepare for, and recover from various types of shocks, while building resilience.

Proposals should:

• assess the different types of shocks (understood as sudden disruptions) that can impact the livelihoods, well-being, gender-based differences, and resilience of rural communities. These shocks may include critical infrastructure disruptions (e.g., energy shortages, transportation disruptions, communication failures) as well as economic (e.g., job losses, financial and economic crises, market instability), socio-cultural and demographic (e.g., social conflicts, health crises, migration), and environmental phenomena (e.g., natural disasters, climate change, extreme weather events, ecosystem disruptions);
• measure rural communities resilience with appropriate indicators by evaluating the initial impact of shocks and the capacity for recovery;
• foster inclusive, participatory, and anticipatory governance by actively engaging women, youth, and people in a vulnerable situation in the development and implementation of disaster risk reduction and management plans, thereby strengthening local governance and ensuring their needs and perspectives are fully integrated into planning and decision-making;
• identify and mobilise local resources to strengthen community-based adaptation and resilience and support the co-design of solutions that help anticipate, prepare for, and recover from environmental and socio-economic shocks;
• support all levels of government (local, regional, national, European and international) in understanding rural vulnerabilities to climate, environmental, and socio-economic shocks, and in designing, assessing, implementing, and evaluating effective response and recovery strategies;

Proposals are expected to build upon already existing results and to collaborate with the other actions funded under this topic, and with other relevant projects funded under Horizon Europe. Proposals should include a task and appropriate resources to ensure these collaborations.

Proposals should also contribute to rural proof the Resilience Dashboards^[1] developed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC).

This topic is interdisciplinary and includes the involvement of diverse areas of expertise, including territorial planning, disaster risk management, emergency response, and participatory governance. This topic requires the effective contribution of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts.

Proposals must use the multi-actor approach: researchers, local authorities, rural communities and other stakeholders operating at local level (as for example civil protection) should collaborate to co-create and co-produce strategies and solutions that address local needs and priorities.

International cooperation is encouraged to foster knowledge exchange and peer-to-peer learning across countries.

[1] https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/strategic-foresight/2020-strategic-foresight-report/resilience-dashboards_en