03/12/2020. The European Networking Rural Development (ENRD) has announced the 3rd edition of the Rural Inspiration Awards 2021 to showcase the projects that have received support from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) for the 2014-2020 period.
- The objective of these awards is to raise awareness and disseminate projects benefiting from the 2014-2020 EAFRD funds.
- There are 4 thematic categories and a fifth by popular vote
- The National Rural Network is the entity responsible for managing applications in Spain.
This third edition consolidates the awards launched in 2018, which both years have had a Spanish flavor. In the first edition of the
Rural Inspiration Awards , the Spanish initiative
Agroberry won the award for improving the competitiveness of rural areas. Meanwhile, in the previous edition, the Spanish project
Ecopionet came in second place in the popular vote category.
The theme of this call is "Our Rural Future," in line with the "long-term vision for rural areas" being promoted at the European level.
2021 Candidacies
Participants compete for the award in four thematic categories , plus a fifth by popular vote .
1. Green Future: Projects that address climate change (mitigation or adaptation), biodiversity protection or restoration, that demonstrate sustainability and contribute to green recovery at both the individual farm/forestry level and for rural communities, and that demonstrate a broad perspective for sharing results.
2. Digital Future : Digitalization initiatives in agriculture and rural communities , whether by improving digital infrastructure and broadband, providing digital services, adopting new technologies, or improving digital skills and knowledge.
3. Resilient Future : Projects demonstrating their contribution to strengthening the resilience of rural Europe. This category can cover a wide range of Community, value chain, or business initiatives, including those from a primarily economic perspective or encompassing a broader definition of sustainable and future-proof projects.
4. Socially inclusive future: initiatives that contribute to the inclusion of rural society . For example, actions focused on gender, generational renewal, disability, and older adults. This category may also include social economy initiatives.
Application requirements
The projects submitted must meet these requirements:
- They must be co-financed by EAFRD funds 2014-2020, in any of the measures they include.
- Projects/actions shortlisted from previous editions of the awards (RIA 2019 and 2020) will not be accepted.
- In principle, the actions/projects must be finalized, and if they are still underway, they must have a very advanced implementation.
The National Rural Network is the designated entity to present applications for all projects wishing to participate. Information must be submitted in English via a form—which can be requested from redrural@mapa.es—on which participants must assign their projects to one of the four categories described above.
The deadline for submitting applications is Wednesday , January 6, 2021. The National Rural Network will select up to eight participants from among those received.
