Danube regions and cities face major societal transitions regarding demographic change. The rural exodus is caused by better employment opportunities for the youth and the prospect of a better life in cities. The movement of labor leads to depopulated areas leaving an aging and increasingly unskilled population behind. However, regions can make a significant new beginning.
But a multi-level participative governance approach and new institutional capacities are needed to pool existent excellent competencies and development potentials. Co-creating future strategies to increase the attractiveness of rural areas is the key to give the youth new incentives to revive rural areas.
Circular-Bioeconomy is used as a tool, that promises to foster regional development: It is a concept focusing on the transition of a fossil-resource based economy towards an economy making use of sustainable production of biological resources and processes to develop new products, thus setting rural areas and their development into focus.
The concept catalyzes interdisciplinary cooperation also between different policy areas/levels to actively address demographic change, by enhancing value creation through new collaboration, business models and value chains raising the attractiveness to stay and even move to rural areas.
Long term goal of the project is to enhance the socio-economic status of the regions, contribute to environmental, climate and resource protection as well as foster development of rural areas. An ecosystem for systematic multi-level governance with actors from the interested public, academia, industry and political decision making will be developed. That ecosystem gives space for co-creation and new forms of integrated urban-rural cooperation leading to increased institutional capacity to tackle demographic change. Thus, overcoming the persistent lack of engagement of societal actors in the political system by giving them ownership to address demographic change.
Expert
Deadlines
Project Starts:
1
Jun
2020
Project Ends:
30
Nov
2022
Partners
Lead Partner: BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg GmbH - DEUTSCHLAND
ERDF PP1: ClusterAgentur Baden-Württemberg, hosted by VDI/VDE IT - DEUTSCHLAND
ERDF PP2: Poly4EmI/Anteja ECG d.o.o. - SLOVENIJA
ERDF PP3: Romanian Cluster Association - ROMÂNIA
ERDF PP4: IFKA Public Benefit Non-profit Limited Company for the Development of the Industry - MAGYARORSZÁG
ERDF PP5: Association of Business Clusters - BULGARIA
ERDF PP6: Ministry of Education, Science and Sport - SLOVENIJA
ERDF PP7: Bioeconomy Cluster - SLOVENSKO
ERDF PP8: Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment of Romania - ROMÂNIA
ERDF PP9: National Cluster Association - ČESKÁ REPUBLIKA
ERDF PP10: Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency - BULGARIA
ERDF PP11: Croatian Wood Cluster - HRVATSKA
ERDF PP12: Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts of the Republic of Croatia - HRVATSKA
ERDF PP13: Ghelinta Commune - ROMÂNIA
ERDF PP14: Business Upper Austria – OÖ Wirtschaftsagentur Ltd. - ÖSTERREICH
ERDF PP15: Styrian Technology Park - SLOVENIJA
ERDF PP16: City of Sigmaringen - DEUTSCHLAND
ERDF PP17: Kosice Self-governing region - SLOVENSKO
IPA PP1: Regional Agency for the Development of Small and Medium Size Enterprises Alma Mons Ltd. - SERBIA
AP: Provincial Secretariat for Regional Development, Interregional Cooperation and Local Self-Government - SERBIA
AP: Healthy Cities of the Czech Republic - ČESKÁ REPUBLIKA
AP: Association of Towns and Communities of Slovakia - SLOVENSKO
AP: EUREGIO Bayerischer Wald - Böhmerwald / Regionalmanagement Mühviertel - ÖSTERREICH
AP: Association of communes of Romania - ROMÂNIA
AP: ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, European Secretariat - DEUTSCHLAND