Smart Villages | Smart Solutions for Innovative Rural Communities in Macro-Regions

This workshop is organised within the framework of the 3rd EU Macro-Regional Strategies Week.
The workshop session aims at discussing how Macro-Regional Strategies can support policy makers and practitioners in developing and implementing the Smart Village approach. Against this background, the session will present examples of how rural communities tackled social, ecological or institutional challenges by developing smart solutions. In addition, the session provides the opportunity to discuss how cross-macro-regional exchange can increase expertise, capacities and awareness to improve the ability of rural communities to address ecological, economic, and social challenges with smart and sustainable solutions. In doing so, this session offers a first glimpse into the planned cooperation between the Alpine Region, Baltic Sea Region, and Danube Region regarding the Smart Village approach.

 

Date Thursday, 10 March 2022
Time 9.00-10.30 CET
Place Online | Access: Website of the EU MRS Week
Programme of the session Download Agenda: Smart Villages at EU MRS Week

 

Speakers & moderator(s)
Name Organisation Role
Thomas Egger Swiss Centre for mountain regions (EUSALP – Action Group 5 Connectivity & Accessibility) Speaker
Katja Vonhoff Diakonie Baden (D-CARE Lab Project – Interreg Danube Transnational) Speaker
Esa Kokkonen Baltic Institute of Finland (EUSBSR – PA Innovation) Speaker
Claudia Singer City of Vienna (EUSDR – Priority Area 10 Institutional Capacity) Moderator
Jean-Pierre Halkin EC, DG REGIO Speaker tbc
Background

The Smart Village approach brings together different stakeholder groups (policy makers, business, academia and civil society) to develop and implement services and processes facilitated through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). In doing so, rural communities gain the ability to improve their performance in terms of sustainability, efficiency or resilience in order to meet the needs of a green and social Europe.

In 2018, Action Group 5 – Connectivity & Accessibility of the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP) launched a pilot initiative (funded by Interreg Alpine Space) to start the implementation of the Smart Village approach in the Alpine Region.

After a successful starting phase in the Alpine Region, macro-regional stakeholders from the Baltic Sea Region and Danube Region are looking at the opportunities for a roll-out of this approach in their respective spatial contexts.

About the EU MRS Week

The EU Macro-Regional Strategies Week (EU MRS WEEK) is the biggest Brussels-based event dedicated to connect key stakeholders from line Ministries of the four MRS (EUSBSR, EUSDR, EUSAIR, EUSALP)* and beyond, representatives of EU institutions, research and academia, various sectors, civil society organisation and citizens. This year, the EU MRS Week takes place from 7 to 11 March 2022.

The EU MRS Week helps improve public understanding of the added value of MRS, it features debates about their future development, it coordinates exchanges and best practises among the four MRS, and it improves the overall understanding of the broad impact of Cohesion Policy on the Commission priorities (e.g. EU Green Deal, A Stronger Europe in the World).

The third edition follows the motto Engage, Empower, Evolve centered around three topics: Youth, European Green Deal and Social change.

Date

Mar 10 2022
Expired!

Time

9:00 am - 10:30 am
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