Rural areas cover 80% of the EU surface and represent 30% of its population. Yet, today we have very little knowledge about them. What are the current situation of rural areas in Europe? How do main socio-economic trends – such as demographics, COVID-19 – and environmental ones – such as climate change and biodiversity loss – affect them? How do these trends have an impact on rural areas?
This is why an European Rural Observatory has just been launched and we are here to celebrate it!
What is the Rural Observatory?
The Rural Observatory is a flagship initiative of the European Union, foreseen in the European Commission’s Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas and developed by the Joint Research Center in coordination with the European Commission’s DG AGRI and DG REGIO.
This platform will provide more and better data about rural areas. In particular, the platform will help you to visualise how rural areas stand with respect to key economic, social and demographic indicators thanks to interactive maps and graphs. Up to today, the rural Observatory is structured across four functionalities: Rural focus, My place, Trends and Analysis. In the future, new collaborative tools will be added to the platform, in order to serve the needs of rural areas and the Rural Pact Community.
Research and Innovation projects will contribute to the Rural Observatory
Several research and innovation projects will be able to contribute to the Rural Observatory, with data and indicators. One example is the EU-funded GRANULAR project, which will look into new data and tools to capture the diversity of rural areas in Europe and promote evidence-based decision making. Several partners of the SHERPA project are involved in GRANULAR, and will contribute to its outputs. Similarly, the RUSTIK project will also dive into new data and tools to trigger the digital and green transformation of rural areas in Europe.
What do you wait for sharing this burning news?
Published by Carla Lostrangio