HORIZON 2020 - What can research and innovation do to empower rural people?

Rural development is often seen to be only a policy issue. But for policy-making to be evidence-based and well suited to the rapidly evolving needs on the ground a variety of questions must be answered and tools provided. Reflecting on what these questions should be, experts highlighted the crucial importance for research outcomes to be well suited to the operational needs of decision-makers in order to ensure a real impact of rural development research.

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Agriculture & Forestry EU countries Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, maritime and martime inland water research and bio-economy

date: 26/02/2015

Around 20 rural development research and field experts participated in the workshop organised by European Commission's Directorate General for agriculture and rural development on 19th February 2015 in Brussels to discuss priorities for rural development research under Horizon 2020.

This workshop was part of a series of workshops organised in the context of the preparation of the Horizon 2020 work programme for 2016-2017 which is planned for adoption in September 2015.

The meeting was opened by Rob Peters, Head of DG AGRI's Research and innovation unit who set the scene and encouraged participants to actively contribute to defining priorities for 2016/2017 and beyond. Miroslav Bozic (DG AGRI) then introduced the concrete objectives of the meeting by presenting how rural development research fits in Horizon 2020.

Thomas Dax, from the Austrian Federal Institute of Less favoured areas, speaking on behalf of the ended ERANET RURAGRI, provided an overview of past research activities on rural development, along with main challenges and main gaps identified by the ERANET.

The presentation triggered a discussion among participants on the impact reached by the wealth of research activities which have been carried out and how future activities should be framed to maximize impact on the ground.

Participants were then invited to split into smaller groups to work on knowledge gaps and research question activities. The morning session was dedicated to horizontal issues such as 'Data, concepts and models', 'Challenges, drivers and new research fields' and 'Policies and governance'. The afternoon was dedicated to four thematic areas: 'New value chains in rural areas', 'Digital development in rural areas', 'Ecosystem services and public goods' and 'territorial and social linkages'.

Experts then gathered to cluster the outcomes of the individual tables into a big common picture.

Rural development research priorities

Results have been compiled into a report and fed into the development of the Horizon 2020 work programme for 2016/2017 and beyond in the longer-term programming of agriculture and rural research.

See the report and the summary of conclusions.