FUTURAL Policy Webinar: “Smarter, Stronger and More Competitive Rural Areas: The Way"

As the EU institutions prepare for the next Multiannual Financial Framework to be tabled in July 2025, the future EU budget will draw from several key initiatives: the Political Guidelines of the European Commission, the Letta and Draghi Reports, the Long-Term Vision for Rural areas and the recent Vision for Agriculture and Food.

All of this points towards significant changes in how EU policies are developed and delivered on the ground. Therefore, the time is right to consider the role of community-led, social, technological and business innovations in creating vibrant rural areas.

Building upon ongoing advocacy work from the European Association for Innovation in Local Development (AEIDL), we will organise a proposed policy webinar on ‘Smarter, Stronger and More Competitive Rural Areas: The Way Forward for EU policies'.

This webinar will showcase and discuss the policy findings of the FUTURAL project. We will present our recommendations to improve existing policies to strengthen rural innovation. We will also reflect with senior representatives from the European Commission, Parliament, Committee of the Regions, and European Economic and Social Committee on how rural innovation can inform the ongoing debate on future EU policies.

Policy Webinar Objectives:

- Present the findings of our policy analysis on EU-level support for community-led innovation in rural areas.
- Share country-specific examples of supportive policies and governance frameworks.
- Discuss policy needs, gaps, and recommendations to guide smart, community-led innovation in the 2028– 2034 programming period.
- Present FUTURAL’s initial set of policy recommendations with project and external experts.

Background:

This webinar is part of FUTURAL (Empowering the future through innovative smart solutions for rural areas), an EU-funded innovation project coordinated by the Agricultural University of Athens and involving 21 partner organisations across Europe. The project pilots various community-led innovations aimed at making rural areas more future-ready.

The event builds on recent milestones, including the European Local Innovation Forum (ELIF) in November 2024, the RURACTIVE Forum in February 2025, and the in-person segment of the FUTURAL EU-RIF held in Amorebieta-Etxano (Basque Country, Spain). These dialogues are helping shape an active European policy community around rural innovation.

To see the agenda, check the event page.

To register, click here.

For questions, contact: clo@aeidl.eu