Making LEADER braver – Bolder action in Austrian rural development
In 2025, Austrian Local Action Groups have chosen ‘Making LEADER braver’ as an overarching ambition for their work. Discover what this means and how it is happening in practice.
In 2025, Austrian LAGs have chosen ‘Making LEADER braver’ as an overarching ambition for their work. ‘Brave’ does not mean reckless, but rather acting with determination and a willingness to learn; allowing for new ideas, daring to launch pilot projects, entering into unfamiliar partnerships (in short: leaving one’s comfort zone) and then evaluating results honestly. LEADER offers the perfect framework for this: it allows for experiments that, if successful, can be transferred.
Playing with new ideas
The power of this spirit was demonstrated at the LINC 2025 event, held in St. Anton am Arlberg (Austria) and hosted by the Local Action Group (LAG) RegioL.
- Read our highlights from LINC2025
RegioL shared several examples of very diverse activities made possible by LEADER - ‘brave’ projects which create tangible change at the local level and help improve the lives of local people. These included the introduction of an express bus across the Italian-Austrian border to facilitate rural mobility; the organisation of German courses, complemented by childcare services to improve accessibility, aimed at empowering women with a migrant background, and a robot that takes on difficult tasks in the food processing industry to support employees. Other projects by the LAG promote adaptation to climate change, such as supporting the installation of drinking water wells, harvesting rainwater in private homes, or creating climate-fit forests by planting climate-resistant tree species.
Being ‘modest’
The current funding period presents many LAGs with the challenge of achieving more with fewer resources. This is where being ‘modest’ is key. Small-scale, cleverly designed projects can create significant social added-value if they are targeted, visible and transferable.
Community-Led Local Development (CLLD) plays to its strengths here: local stakeholders decide what is really needed and what is most impactful, i.e., a decentralised, participatory approach ensuring that budgets are used in a focused manner, civil society resources are activated, and existing infrastructures are shared. Cooperation with associations, schools, businesses or communities increases reach, voluntary work increases the feeling of belonging, and an open communication culture accelerates learning as an ongoing process. as an ongoing process.
Advancing gender equality in and through LEADER
A working group of the Austrian CAP Monitoring Committee has set itself the goal of improving gender equality in the current implementation period. Their goal: to deliver practical results that are widely applicable. LEADER regions in particular have the potential to advance gender equality.
The LAG Region Hermagor has piloted a new regional approach to mainstreaming gender equality in LEADER, having developed a transferable model which is now available to other regional structures across Austria in the form of a practical guide on LEADER as a driver for equal opportunities in rural areas.
The basic consideration beyond this is that equality is a prerequisite for successful development in rural areas. It is the only way to create equal opportunities, combat the shortage of skilled workers, strengthen social cohesion, and ensure sustainable development. Achieving this requires a threefold approach: anchoring equality in the Local Development Strategy (LDS), consolidating it in the LAG management, and implementing equality at the project level. The LAG Region Hermagor has started organising workshops (including specific ones for men and women), launching specific calls, and will soon begin adapting its LDS. The aim is to ensure that gender equality is viewed as a basic requirement at all levels.
A specific field of action to advance gender equality in the labour market is science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, which is also crucial to counter the shortage of skilled workers in rural areas. Here, LEADER/CLLD has already helped to achieve a lot in Austria, in particular in Tyrol. The STEM FabLab district Landeck is the result of the cooperation among ‘STEM FabLab district Imst’ (a project by Regio Imst), RegioL’s project ‘STEM Detective Corners district Landeck’ and local schools. The project set up a number of STEM laboratories and STEM corners, through which children can be introduced to STEM education from an early age. This is particularly important to allow girls to develop an interest in STEM at an early age and build on their skills throughout their education to facilitate their access to STEM professions, which are typically male-dominated.
- Discover how Spain is using the CAP to advance gender equality in rural areas
The power of networking
The extensive cooperation between LAGs in Austria shows that determination and impact rarely arise in isolation. National and regional cooperation projects pool resources across administrative boundaries and allow co-developing, testing and evaluating work in areas such as climate adaptation, regional value creation, tourism and social innovation.
A pilot region leads the way with strength and confidence, so that other LAGs have a ‘safe’ (and clear) path to follow. This is one of the many advantages of LEADER: LAGs are not in competition with each other – instead, they work together to achieve more.
Gatherings such as LINC broaden horizons, consolidate knowledge and lower the inhibition threshold for taking the first steps once the participants are back home. Seeing how others face similar challenges, yet still break new ground, gives people confidence in their own region – and motivation to tackle things head on.
While EU-level networking is very exciting – and increasingly easier, also thanks to the EU CAP Network’s LEADER networking tools – national and local events are invaluable opportunities for exchange and mutual learning. Key networking events in Austria are the LEADER annual conference and the meetings by the LEADER Forum Austria – for example, the ‘Autumn magic’ and the ‘Winter magic’ meetings. Here, LEADER managers from all over the country come together to share experiences, discuss current issues and agree on common approaches to challenges. Open dialogue about problems – and about who is trying out which solutions – provides guidance, saves resources and strengthens the ability of all those involved to take action. In this culture of trust, projects are more quickly transformed from individual initiatives into resilient alliances. A perfect example of an alliance in Tyrol is the “Network Vacancy Management” project, in which all LAGs across Tyrol work together to reactivate vacant properties in the region.
- Take a tour of the new LEADER networking tools by the EU CAP Network
“’Making LEADER braver’ invites whole regions to embrace their creative potential, beyond individual risk-taking", says Stefan Niedermoser, chairman of the LEADER-Forum and managing director of LAG Regio³ Bezirk Kitzbühel. Courage to change means setting clear priorities, making use of local decision-making opportunities and gaining insights from setbacks.
Exchanges provide information, inspiration and engagement. LAGs can strive to be efficient: big effects with limited resources, getting people on board, and upscaling ideas. If the LEADER world stays informed, inspired and engaged, brave projects will emerge in rural areas that are not only convincing today but also models for tomorrow – for resilient, creative and sustainable development throughout Europe.
- Browse the LAG Directory to discover the work of the Austrian LAGs
