The new year has started in style for FUTURAL, with quite an energetic mood among our MAPs partners! February was an eventful month for FUTURAL’s collaborative activities, as four MAP Leaders (Durangaldea, Provincie West-Vlaanderen, KIPA and Pongau) organized the first round of co-creation workshops, sharing their common vision to empower their local communities. The Multi-Actor Pilots (MAPs) will assess the challenges and needs in six rural areas so that the tech-savvy members of the consortium can develop digital and innovative Smart Solutions to address these challenges.
FUTURAL follows a participatory, co-creation approach, and its innovation roadmap is organised along four main iterative steps: prototype, test, pilot and demonstration.
In the prototype phase (June 2023 – May 2024), MAP leaders will organise the first round of co-creation workshops to capture rural stakeholders’ needs to inform innovation design and development of the first Minimum-Viable-Product (MVP) of the SS and the Metasearch Platform.
In the testing phase (June 2024 – May 2025), MAP leaders will organise the second round of co-creation workshops to test the prototype (in a controlled environment) and give feedback to be used to refine the SS and the Metasearch Platform towards the Alpha version. In this phase, each MAP will also run the first Capacity Building workshop to empower rural communities to implement and adopt innovations.
In the piloting phase (June 2025 – May 2026), MAP leaders will organise the third and final round of co-creation workshops to pilot (in a live, controlled environment) and provide feedback on usability and scalability of the innovations to be used to refine the SS and the Metasearch Platform towards the Beta version. In the piloting phase, each MAP will also run a second Capacity Building workshop to strengthen rural communities further to implement and adopt innovations.
In the demonstration phase (June 2026 – May 2027), the FUTURAL SS, Metasearch Platform and Open Call’s projects will be demonstrated and evaluated by MAP members.
The experience acquired from co-creation in the MAPs will be shared in dedicated workshops in the EU-RIF events.
Co-creating with the MAPs
February 2024 began with a co-creation workshop in Berriz, Bizkaia, Spain. The event was organised by Urkiola Landa Garapenerako Elkartea – Asociación De Desarrollo Rural De Durangaldea (Durangaldea), our Spanish MAP Leader, on 1/2/2024.
Public and private stakeholders (municipalities, foresters, representatives of the primary sector, agricultural unions, and cultural and sports associations) got engaged in enthusiastic and fruitful discussions on the development of Smart Solutions for the Spanish rural community.
The FUTURAL SS, to match the challenges the MAP is facing:
- Resilience to Shocks: A crowdsensing platform will assess road networks and bridges based on rural traffic trends to help estimate the risk likelihood and severity of road network problems to anticipate preventive measures (Service providers: Tecnalia/ICCS).
- Citizen Engagement and Quality of Life: An online platform will monitor vital infrastructure, travel time to infrastructure or services (e.g., hospitals), hard-to-reach areas (e.g., firefighter access), and general accessibility. The results will be used by policy makers and stakeholders to develop actions and solutions to improve the vulnerability status of the area with the support of machine learning and AI models (Service provider: DLR).
On February 5th 2024, our Belgian MAP leader, Provincie West-Vlaanderen (PWV) organised their first community-led innovations co-creation workshop.
The FUTURAL SS to match the challenges the MAP is facing:
- Citizen Engagement and Quality of Life: An online platform will be developed to assess accessibility to infrastructure, health and social services. Policymakers, stakeholders, and authorities will integrate the results with machine learning and AI models to propose solutions that affect citizens’ accessibility and quality of life (Service provider: DLR).
- Climate Adaptation and Mitigation: An online platform will monitor vital infrastructure, travel time to infrastructure or services (e.g., hospitals), hard-to-reach areas (e.g., firefighter access), and general accessibility. The results will be used by policy makers and stakeholders to develop actions and solutions to improve the vulnerability status of the area with the support of machine learning and AI models: (Service providers: IHE – DELFT/ ICCS). A wide array of stakeholders showed their sheer interest, as the event was attended by members of regional authorities, representatives from research organisations and farmers’ associations, environmental and regional landscape representatives, and tourist associations spokespersons.
The focal point of the discussions was the droughts and floods in the Handzame Valley, which is situated in West Flanders. The participants suggested and analysed solutions during the workshop.
On February 17th, 2024, our Greek partner KIPA organized their first co-creation workshop. The MAP’s Smart Solutions are destined to empower the local community of Kythira island.
The FUTURAL SS have been selected to match the challenges the MAP is facing:
- Lifelong Education and Training: An online platform providing tailored courses to meet the needs of the local community in Kythira aims to build modern workplace skills and encourage young people to acquire new, contemporary skills related to digitization and innovative services (Service provider: AUA).
- Citizen Engagement and Quality of Life: An online platform to allow citizens and visitors to easily report problems encountered along the hiking trails, to ensure timely maintenance of areas under protection for the conservation of natural heritage and biodiversity (Service provider: The Lisbon Council).
Participation in the talks was quite satisfactory, with stakeholders from the local industry, regional and local authorities, members from civil society organisations, and citizens, all taking part.
Last, but not least, our partner and MAP leader from Austria, Regionalverband Pongau (Pongau) hosted the first community led co-creation workshop in Salzburg, Austria on March 13th, 2024.
The primary focus of discussions between the hosts and the stakeholders centred on addressing deficiencies in waste management within the region, with specific emphasis on food waste, sewage sludge, and biomass ash. Regional experts, industry professionals, and other relevant actors were invited to participate in discussions, evaluations, and collaborative sessions. The aim was to explore and develop potential valorization pathways specific to the region’s waste streams.
The gathering served to inspire and offer new perspectives on innovative ways to utilise problematic waste streams. For each of the three waste categories, specific byproducts and processes were identified. This approach assisted local stakeholders in assessing the feasibility of utilising waste streams as secondary feedstock, fostering interconnections and uncovering innovative opportunities to strengthen existing value chains within their region.
The FUTURAL SS, to match the challenges the MAP is facing:
- Circular Bioeconomy, Biodiversity, and Ecosystem Management: An online circular bioeconomy platform will provide knowledge on resource availability and sharing, product diversification, and employment creation outside of tourism, reducing dependence on tourism. There will be a first point of contact and support for bioeconomy initiatives. (Service providers: ICCS / ART21 / Alchemia).
- Resilience to Shocks: A crowdsensing platform – early warning system. It will measure the quality of existing infrastructure, especially after a long period of disuse (old buildings, lifts, snow cannons), and decide what kind of maintenance or renovation is needed or if something needs to be replaced. (Service provider: Tecnalia / ICCS).
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