The National Rural Network has selected the Ecocirplas and Supermakers initiatives to compete in the Green Futures and Digital Futures categories, respectively. These projects will represent Spain in the awards organized by the European Network for Rural Development.
The Navarre initiatives Ecocirplas and Supermarkers have been selected, along with six other Spanish projects, to participate in the European Rural Inspiration Awards. Both projects have been selected by the National Rural Network to compete in awards that each year reward the most outstanding EAFRD rural development projects in four thematic categories: Green Futures, Digital Futures, Resilient Futures and Innovative and Socially Inclusive Futures.
Within the first category, the Ecocirplas initiative aims to develop an innovative process that provides a solution to the plastic for agricultural use. In this way, the project carried out by the organizations UAGN, UCAN, Grupo AN, Solteco and Iter Investigación aims to optimize the plastic waste valorization chain from the implementation and collection in the field, as well as to design a certification protocol for the traceability of the products produced from the beginning of the sale of plastics.
For its part, the Supermakers project proposes a workspace set up in a rural locality, in which young people from the villages will be able to devise new resources and elements to improve the life of their territories. Participants will devise answers to the main rural challenges through technological solutions such as virtual reality, 3D printing or robotics. The initiative, coordinated by Castilla y León and Navarra and promoted by the organizations TEDER, ADRISS will create a virtual network for the exchange of ideas and solutions between the different Maker Labs through a web platform.
About the award
The National Rural Network is the entity designated to select the candidacies of all those Spanish projects that have decided to participate in the fourth edition of the Rural Inspiration Awards (RIA) 2022 organized by the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD). An edition organized in tune with the European Year of Youth, whose leitmotiv is “the future is youth”.
Under this premise, member states are encouraged to submit EAFRD rural development projects in four thematic categories. In addition, shortlisted projects involving young people under the age of 40 will go forward to the popular vote, which will reward a project involving young people from rural areas.
Specifically, eight projects were selected by Spain to compete in the four categories: Green Futures, Digital Futures, Resilient Futures and Innovative and Socially Inclusive Futures. Of these candidatures, six are eligible for the popular vote award dedicated to initiatives involving young people in rural areas.
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