More than a Village

Project overview

Smart village transition, a model for more competitive and attractive villages in Central Europe

Many rural areas in central Europe struggle with the digital transition. Strategies to become smarter and stay competitive are either missing or hard to transfer. The project “More than a village” is changing this. The partnership develops a smart village model that will make rural regions more attractive for people and businesses. The partnership tests the model including action plans in five different regions with a focus on job creation and business development.

1,71m €

Project Budget

80%

of the Budget is funded by ERDF

Layer 1

5

Countries

8

Regions

8

Partners

3

Pilots

Duration

Start date

End date

Project progress

55%

Project partnership

Project partners

Polska (PL)

Lead partner

LocaI Action Group Association "South Warmia"

Address
Łajsy 3
11-036 Gietrzwałd
Country
Poland (PL)
Web
www.poludniowawarmia.pl

Project partner

Address
Cyfrowa 6
71-441 Sczecin
Country
Poland (PL)
Web
http://www.balteus.eu
Total partner budget
169,500 €
Address
Piac utca 54
4024 Debrecen
Country
Hungary (HU)
Web
https://www.hbmo.hu/
Total partner budget
183,340 €
Address
Lendavska ulica 5a
9000 Murska Sobota
Country
Slovenia (SI)
Web
https://www.itc-cluster.com
Total partner budget
191,520 €
Address
Vukotinovićeva 2
10000 Zagreb
Country
Croatia (HR)
Web
www.irmo.hr
Total partner budget
196,000 €
Address
II. istarske brigade 11
52420 Buzet
Country
Croatia (HR)
Web
https://www.buzet.hr/
Total partner budget
197,852 €
Address
Via G. Colombo 40
20133 Milano
Country
Italy (IT)
Web
www.poliedra.polimi.it
Total partner budget
223,776 €
Address
Piazza Matteotti 9
16123 Genova
Country
Italy (IT)
Web
www.anciliguria.it
Total partner budget
176,116 €

Roadmap

1

Challenge

Improving the competitiveness and attractiveness of rural areas in the Central European region to create favourable conditions for residents and local businesses.

2

Specific problem

Compared to urbanised areas, rural areas are characterised by low levels of entrepreneurship and digitalisation and an outflow of young people who move to cities.

3

Idea

Our idea is to implement a smart village approach. This approach focuses on identification and use of local assets of rural regions for enhancing their development, which will improve their attractiveness and competitiveness.

4

Solution

We will develop strategies and test on the ground tailor-made solutions adapted to local needs and contexts. Transnational pilot actions will be developed focusing on: • Business support and digitalisation smart village testing • Smart tourism village testing • Smart agriculture village testing

5

How it works

As part of the transnational pilot actions, the following activities will be tested: • Designing and testing a new Smart Village Hub in South Warmia, Poland • Piloting a new Digital Silver Economy Hub in Hajdú-Bihar County, Hungary • Innovation system for reduction of food loss and waste in Murska Sobota, Slovenia • Virtual agrifood web platform in Buzet, Croatia • Improvement of smart tourism services in Anci Liguria, Italy

News

Pilot actions

Outputs

Joint strategy for smart village transition in Central Europe

The joint strategy for smart village transition provides an analytical framework to assist smart village initiatives to support development of rural areas in Central Europe. It was developed based on capitalisation of previous projects' results, the exchanged experience, surveys and reports.
Type of output: Strategies and action plans

Transnational action plan for smart village transition

The presented transnational action plan represents the embodiment of the actions to be performed in the five pilot areas of More than a Village project, namely South Warmia in Poland, Alta Val Polcevera in Italy, Hajdú-Bihar in Hungary, Pomurje in Slovenia and Buzet in Croatia.
Type of output: Strategies and action plans

Smart village business support tool

The first solution will contain all the information on business support in rural areas acquired during the implementation of the pilot by the Polish and Hungarian partners.
Type of output: Solutions

Smart tourism village tool

The second solution will be a smart tourism village tool compiling information from enactment of pilot action in Italy. It will concern support for local rural entrepreneurs in the tourism sector.
Type of output: Solutions

Agri-food smart village tool

The last solution provides a comprehensive agri-food smart village tool on local agricultural businesses development and support. The tool will bring together lessons learned during pilot implementation in Slovenia and Croatia.
Type of output: Solutions

Project videos

More than a Village

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Project on social media

Project Contacts

Project Manager

Małgorzata Steckiewicz
Phone: +48 691 930 716

Finance Manager

Iwona Hudź
Phone: +48 503 169 633

Communication Manager

Anna Kraszewska
Phone: +48 782 433 630