The Sustainable Hub to Engage in Rural Policies with Actors (SHERPA)

The Sustainable Hub to Engage in Rural Policies with Actors (SHERPA project) is a four-year project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The project aims at engaging citizens, stakeholders, scientists, and decision-makers in formulating recommendations with the ambition to redefine European development policies and research agenda for rural areas. The interaction between research, policy and citizens will take place in up to 40 Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs) placed in 20 Member States and in a MAP at EU level.

The overall objective of the SHERPA project is to gather relevant knowledge and information that contribute to the formulation of recommendations for future pertinent policies to EU rural areas.

The central tool for this is establishing multi-actor platforms (MAPs) in 20 EU countries where citizens, stakeholders, policymakers and scientists meet in the development of strategic thinking and practical recommendations for the formulation of modern rural policies. The recommendations will be transferred to the national/regional level and EU level as input for the policy formulation.

Nordregio activities will focus on

1) developing the framework for the science-society-policy interface in the MAPS by collecting methods for engaging the stakeholders and establishing conditions for processes leading to learning and formulation of recommendations

2) organise MAPs in Denmark, Finland (start 2019/2020), Sweden and Estonia (start 2021/22).

The MAPs will be organised in close cooperation and coordination with existing national/local organisations.

The project is funded by EU H2020 as a coordination and support action. SHERPA is led by Ecorys, Brussels and consists of 17 partners. The project started on 1 October 2019 and will run for four years.

Read more about the project:

https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/225217/factsheet/en