After two cycles of the project have been successfully finalised, the members of the EU Multi-Actor Platform discussed the start of the third cycle. The meeting took place in a hybrid format on 7 July 2022 where members talked about what worked well during the previous cycles and what actions are needed to improve the process for the next cycles.
SHERPA is implementing the last two cycles for 41 Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs) across Europe as it is nearing the less than 15 months left of the project.
The meeting was attended by the following experts from civil society, policy and research fields: Alexia Rouby (DG AGRI, European Commission), Eleftherios Stavropoulos (DG REGIO, European Commission) Klaus Boule (European Committee of the Regions – CoR), Vanessa Halhead (European Rural Community Alliance – ERCA), Goran Šoster (Partnership for Rural Europe – PREPARE), David Miller and Katerine Irvine (The James Hutton Institute), Dominique Barjolle (ETH Zurich), Olivier Chartier, Elodie Salle and Brigit Zomer (Ecorys), and Roxana Vilcu (AEIDL).
Since January 2022, the work on the third MAP cycle started with the preparation of four SHERPA Discussion Papers: (i) Social dimension of rural areas, (ii) Digitalisation in rural areas, (iii) Climate change and land use, and (iv) Sustainable and resilient value chains. MAPs have chosen their foreseen topic and have kick-started discussions with their members. Their position papers are expected later this year.
EU MAP members are set to meet during the last quarter of the year to work on the SHERPA Position Papers foreseen for the four topics abovementioned, bringing forward the key messages of the MAPs.
Background
The EU Multi-Actor Platform (MAP) is SHERPA’s rural interface established at the European level aiming to engage a mix of key actors from the three target communities (science, society and policy). The EU MAP provides space for debating issues and priorities for the future development of rural areas and formulate key policy recommendations.
During the first cycle, the project delivered two SHERPA Discussion Papers, 17 MAP Discussion Papers, 21 Position Papers and two SHERPA Position Papers. All MAPs worked on the long-term vision for rural areas and main results were presented and discussed during the first Annual Conference of SHERPA in 2020 which was followed by the publication of the SHERPA Position Paper. A pilot exercise was also carried out among three MAPs on the topic of biodiversity and landscape features.
During the second cycle, the project delivered three SHERPA Discussion Papers, 20 MAP Position Papers and three SHERPA Position Papers on the following topics: (i) Change in production and diversification of the rural economy; (ii) Foresight exercise: Alternative rural futures; and (iii) Climate change and environmental sustainability [to be published soon]. The results of the MAPs working on the various topics were presented and discussed at the second Annual Conference of SHERPA in 2022.
Browse through all the SHERPA Rural Policy Papers.