The Smart Rural 21 project aimed to explore how Smart Villages can be better supported through policies and programmes across Europe. The policy framework was mapped in each Member States (as far as information was available at the time) both for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and other policies and support instruments.

Analytical work was also carried out to review the state-of-play across Europe concerning Smart Village policies (the main outcomes of this work are summarised in the Final Report of the project to be published on the DG AGRI website). Furthermore, three policy working groups were organised with the participation of representatives of policy stakeholders (including CAP Managing Authorities and other ministries, National Rural Networks and LAGs) to present the outcomes of the policy work and identify policy case studies.

Finally, 4 policy case studies were developed to demonstrate successful support schemes for Smart Villages in different policy contexts:

– Call for ‘Smart and sustainable territories’, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region, France

– Call for innovative projects ‘Smart Territory’ Wallonia, Belgium

– Innovation Camp methodology, Finland

– National Smart Villages Programme, Estonia

The Smart Rural 27 project continues to support the Smart Villages policy process in Member States until (at least) the end of 2023. To find out more about recent developments visit the Smart Rural 27 webpage.