The SHERPA online repository gives you immediate access to a compilation of 765 research outputs and findings of past and ongoing EU-funded research and innovation projects of relevance to rural areas. In this blog post, Hercules Panoutsopoulos and Penny Zafiraki explain what the SHERPA repository is, what information is contained there, and how you can make use of it! In addition, an online survey has just been launched to collect your feedback and make our repository even greater!
SHERPA Repository: a hub of information and knowledge for rural areas
Developed by the University of Athens (Greece) in close collaboration with the other SHERPA partners, the SHERPA repository is a one-stop shop for rural-related information.
The SHERPA repository aims at promoting knowledge transfer and shaping agendas for the future of rural areas across Europe! It enables searches for outputs, findings, and recommendations from research and innovation projects by topics relevant to rural areas, such as climate change and land use, digitalisation of rural areas, and governance.
Scientists and researchers, policymakers, representatives of civil society organisations, public administrations, authorities, as well as citizens are just a few examples of users that can potentially benefit from the information available in our SHERPA repository.
What are the topics covered?
In our repository, information is clustered into nine topics, namely:
- Long-term Vision for Rural Areas,
- Biodiversity,
- Climate Change and Environmental Services,
- Change in production and diversification of the rural economy,
- Social Dimensions of Rural Areas,
- Digitalisation in Rural Areas,
- Climate Change and Land use,
- Sustainable and resilient value chains,
- Governance.
These topics have been chosen following both a top-down and a bottom-up approach as part of an attempt to identify issues of relevance and interest to rural areas in Europe. The intention has been to take stock of the work in previous projects to make informed decisions about future research and policy agendas. In particular, the repository has the ambition to contribute to raising prosperity and well-being of rural communities.
How to use the repository?
Navigation through our SHERPA repository can be made in an easy and intuitive way. Access to information is available within a few clicks through easy-to-use interfaces. The users of the SHERPA online repository may browse the content available in it by selecting one of the topics in the repository’s landing page or typing some keywords in the search bar. The availability of filters such as “year of release”, “funding programme”, “project budget”, “keywords”, and “participating countries” allow for controlling the number of results to be delivered from the repository.
In addition, the SHERPA online repository provides also access to an online cartographic map, fully developed by the project. This map shows the geographic distribution of the SHERPA multi-actor platforms and other multi-actor groups (e.g., Living Labs of other projects in the ‘Rural Cluster’- i.e., DESIRA, MOVING and Polirural).
It allows to enlarge areas of interest, change backgrounds, and print information of interest related to various multi-actor groups operating in the context of other projects in the ‘Rural Cluster’ More information about the projects of the “Rural Cluster” is available through a page of the SHERPA online repository dedicated to them.
Find out more and give us your feedback!
Start navigating our repository now!
After spending some time to getting familiar with the SHERPA data repository’s web application and having played around with it, you are free to proceed to the survey. It will take you only 1 minute of your time!