Participatory Governance through Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs)
To promote inclusive rural innovation, the ESIRA project established Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs) as participatory bodies that enable local stakeholders to co-identify challenges and co-create solutions. Each MAP brings together actors from public institutions, civil society, academia, and the private sector, ensuring diverse representation across age, gender, and social groups, especially including women, youth, elderly, and marginalised populations. Clear selection criteria—such as stakeholder legitimacy and diversity quotas—helped build trust and ensured commitment. Early involvement and shared ownership of priorities empowered members and enhanced collaboration. However, coordinating schedules and interests remained a challenge. Designed within the quadruple helix model, MAPs serve as society-science-policy interfaces adapted to local contexts and supported by skilled facilitation. They proved to be a flexible and replicable governance tool for bottom-up policy design. For policymakers and rural development practitioners, MAPs offer a structured approach to inclusive, transparent decision-making grounded in local realities. Detailed information on MAPs and their pilot locations within the ESIRA project is available at: https://www.esira.eu/.
Enhancing Social Innovation in Rural Areas
Ongoing | 2024-2027
- Main funding source
- Horizon Europe (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
- Geographical location
- Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Norway, Republic of Serbia