On 20 January 2022, the Interreg-funded project, CERUSI (Central European Rural Social Innovation) held an online event on how to foster social innovations in rural areas. The project launched a network of actors who share a common vision to improve social innovation ecosystems in rural areas throughout Central Europe.
The webinar was the closing event of the project and it presented the main outputs, findings and discussed policy opportunities to encourage social innovation in rural areas. Social innovations and social entrepreneurship need a strong network, locally and transnationally, supported by regional social capital and knowledge resources.
The project implemented a Rural Social Innovation Academy and a Rural Social Innovation Caravan Lab, aiming at fostering consultation and engagement of rural communities. Another output of the project is the Skyrocket platform that helps bring the community together to address the lack of social infrastructure in rural areas.
This new network reflects the CERUSI objectives: bringing the project to the people, harvesting challenges in their communities, their ideas and providing a temporary support framework that is envisioned to be transformed into a partnership between local actors interested in bringing their region forward and their like-minded peers all over CE.