Capacity Building for Integrated Sustainable Development in Rural Areas Erasmus Project

Project Title

Capacity Building for Integrated Sustainable Development in Rural Areas

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Social entrepreneurship / social innovation; Rural development and urbanisation; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

INTEGRURAL is a strategic partnership (SP) that brings together a public government institution,
universities and SMEs dealing with sustainable development in the field of agricultural production
and cultural heritage. It seeks to address the need for educational activities aiming at capacity
building and networking in – and between – European rural areas for the promotion of sustainable and
integrative development. Furthermore, with the recent experienc of the lockdown due to COVID-19, it will
also explore ways of using digital media for promoting, marketing and even seling products through on-lline
apppllications and networks.

INTEGRURAL involves training actions for persons acting as entrepreneurs and/or as members of
producers’ organisations, NGOs and cultural institutions in rural areas. Its thematic scope
encompasses agricultural production, stockbreeding activities, promotion of cultural (immaterial)
heritage, and local branding in an integrated approach.

The two main objectives of the Strategic Partnership are (1) to set in motion a structured training
process through a three-tier training module (training of trainers, local training actions, job
shadowing), and (2) to build on the training process for the formation of local business clusters.
These clusters will create together a “virtual hub” that will enable the exchange of information, of
good practices and know-how, as well as the elaboration of strategies for added-value incentives and
local branding. The clusters, interlinked in the “virtual hub”, will serve as focal points for cooperative
solutions and the promotion of innovation in rural areas.

INTEGRURAL will contribute to the development of local capacities towards cooperation, creativity,
networking, and extroversion. Making use of the local potential (agricultural products, dairy products,
organic farm products, heritage assets, natural reserves etc.), along with an intelligent approach to
transnational cooperation and information exchange through the uuse of digital tools, INTEGRURAL can create and distribute
knowledge, and take rural communities out of seclusion. This, in its turn, can lead to a more
integrated and sustainable development of these localities, far beyond simple “growth” exigencies of
modern economies.
This integrative approach can create meaningful linkages between economic activity, natural
environment and cultural heritage, in order to blend innovatively past wisdom and local identity with
state-of-the-art models for social economy and sustainability. In addition, energy-saving solutions
and organic farming can lead to a more rational use of local resources and thus to greater selfsustainability of rural regions.

All the above are of crucial importance for rural areas, which try to find their place in the national,
European and global socioeconomic context, to train, sustain and enlarge the local workforce, and to
develop capabilities that combine productively tradition and innovation. To this aim, transnational
cooperation is the most important factor. European rurality is at the same time multifaceted and subject to many commonalities, stemming
from comparable nation-state politics and from similar productive activities within their geographical
area. This means that the challenges, which European rural localities have to face are to a large
extent common and have to be addressed transnationally.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 254886 Eur

Project Coordinator

MUNICIPALITY OF FARKADONA & Country: EL

Project Partners

• Time Heritage – Afroditi Kamara & Co
• UNIVERSIDADE DE TRAS-OS-MONTES E ALTO DOURO
• Institut d’Auvergne du Développement des Territoires
• VerdeMente. Asociación para la I+D+i, salvaguarda y fomento de la biodiversidad, de la artesanía alimentaria y de la salud integral del ser humano y del medio ambiente
• Polygonal
• Ruralidade Verde, Lda