Research Project
SMARTERA: Smart community-led transition for Europe's Rural Areas
SMART ERA empowers rural communities with smart, co-created solutions to boost well-being, resilience and innovation.
Where: International
Where: International
Challenge
Rural areas face depopulation, ageing, limited services and growing socio-economic and environmental pressures.
SMART ERA addresses this challenge by co-creating Smart Innovation Packages (SIP) with local communities, combining technology, governance, business and policy tools to strengthen well-being, resilience and local innovation.
Approach
SMART ERA follows a research-driven and community-led approach, starting from evidence, lessons learned from previous EU projects, multi-scale data sources and emerging rural needs. Through co-design, piloting and testing, the project develops and validates solutions tailored to local challenges. Results are assessed in terms of long-term impact, feeding into sustainability planning and impact maximisation.
Digital Ecosystem
Solution
Digital Ecosystem
SMART ERA provides integrated tools to support the smart transition of rural areas, including a smartness assessment methodology, co-design and motivation toolkits, digital platforms, data analysis dashboards, policy recommendations and innovative business models, combined into Smart Innovation Packages (SIPs).
Engineering plays a key role in developing, integrating, and tailoring technological components, leading interoperability, data integration, and digital solution delivery within the SIPs.
The project has received co-funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme - Grant Agreement No. 101084160.
Results
Toolkit for co-design and community engagement
Integrated digital solutions and data dashboards
SIPs tested in 6 European pilot areas
Policy recommendations and replication strategies
Impacts
Technologies
AI & Data
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