The Final Conference of the RUSTIK and GRANULAR Horizon Europe projects took place in Brussels at the end of June, after nearly four years of research. The event focused on academic and practical advances in how rural areas can be better understood and supported through more functional approaches and granular data. It was highly relevant for work on rural development, territorial cohesion and place-based policy.
A central message was that rural diversity can be better captured through functional relations, with methodologies on functional rural areas being advanced by the JRC, the RUSTIK project and others. The discussions confirmed that rural areas cannot be adequately understood through existing classifications or aggregate indicators alone. They also highlighted that data, by itself, is not sufficient to support rural transitions. To become useful for policy and practice, data needs to be interpreted locally, combined with qualitative experience, translated for different users, and linked to practical tools such as rural proofing, story maps, and LAG sense-making workshops.
The results show that many of the transitions experienced by rural areas, including those related to access to services, mobility, housing, food systems and demographic change, require tailored responses and stronger capacity for proactive and decentralised rural proofing of policies.
For more information, please contact Neli Georgieva.