<< Background >>Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are considered one of the main causes of Earth’s climate change. Transport is Europe’s biggest source of CO2, responsible for the emission of over a quarter of all greenhouse gases. Transport emissions have increased by a quarter since 1990 in the EU increasing at its fastest pace since 2001. Mobility policies must play a decisive role in contributing to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, the commitments of decarbonization and better air quality. Providing more sustainable forms of mobility can also make an important contribution to mitigating climate change.However, policy focuses have essentially been put on the major urban centres, forgetting mobility between urban and rural areas and mobility within rural areas. Rural areas present specific challenges such as the low density of population (and fast depopulation), the long distances between towns, the ageing of the population, higher poverty rates and in many occasions bad connections with airports /railway /road nodes.Recent studies shows that mobility is behind the high average of CO2 emissions attributed to citizens in rural areas compared with urban residents. This comparison is not only unfair (based on the lack of public transport and inadequate calculating methods), but it is also very dangerous for rural communities that might see how public financing mechanisms based on green indicators will give priority to other areas. An adequate sustainable mobility scenario in rural areas will facilitate the possibility to access work, education or services and can make an important contribution to mitigating climate change and depopulation. Smart mobility strategies and technological tools will help rural communities to design and implement new solutions. Rural mobility can be a key component to other economic, social, tourism or environmental improvements by increasing the connectivity of rural areas.Therefore, It is urgent to act towards a more reliable and efficient mobility in rural areas in Europe.Any initiative for the development, revitalization or organization of the territory must start from a careful programming. The rural development agents are the professional who know the techniques and tools to program, plan and help the community to manage and make its resources profitable. That is why training in sustainable mobility for these professionals is the basis for the implementation of new sustainable mobility models in rural areas. This Project will develop a practical and dynamic training program on mobility solutions and training platform for rural development agents. The training will be available in the e-platform also for the general public. The project will also set the basis for the development of a curriculum for an agent for rural mobility in Europe.<< Objectives >>The objectives of this project are: I.Promoting efficient and sustainable rural mobility and the uptake of new mobility strategies and technologies in rural areas (through developing an innovative course and platform on efficient rural mobility for rural development agents)II.Capitalise and promote the use of digital tools and new technologies for mobility in rural areas III.Elaborate on a framework to set the basis of a European curriculum for rural mobility agentsIV.Creation of a cooperative network for the promotion of policies and initiatives for rural mobility Although the long-term beneficiaries of this project are all the citizens from rural areas, the main public objective of this project and of the training are the rural development agents working in municipalities, association of towns, provinces and local action groups.Rural development agents are technicians are a key element to transfer to rural societies the tools and knowledge to use more efficient transport means. These professionals will benefit directly from the training of the project and will acquire new competences and tools for their daily tasks. These agents also asses local decision makers and therefore have a valuable influence for the potential improvement of mobility at local levelLocal and regional authorities are another target group of the project, they will be involved through partners in project validation activities and multiplier events. Project partners currently collaborates actively with different municipalities and regions in the participating countries and have direct access to this stakeholder groupsSecondary target group are VET entities working in mobility issues in rural areas. The training and platform are of open access and can be used by these entities if requested.These target groups will be involved directly in the initial analysis of needs/barriers, and the validation of the training program and tool. They will be the main target of the project dissemination actions.<< Implementation >>The project activities will lead to the project objectives thorugh the following specific work packages of actions:WP1: PROJECT MANAGEMENT / COORDINATION ACTIVITIES will allow the proper implementation of project activities with good quality and in time, as well as the proper justification of costs, transference of money and the delivery of reports to the National Agency.WP2 RURAL MOBILITY TRAINING CONTENTS AND HANDBOOK: It will guarantee the development of up-to-date and quality training based on the identified project modules of knowledge on rural mobility. The content of the courses will include a handbook on good practices that have proven successful in Europe.WP3 Rural Mobility E-PLATFORM: the development of this platform will allow the implementation of the course on line, the exchange and dissemination of content and experiences and of updated resources according to market evolution. In addition, rural development agents and other actors will be encouraged to share content related to their experiences, to serve as a framework for knowledge exchange. WP4 TRAINING WORKSHOP TO VALIDATE THE COURSE AND E-PLATFORM. The objective is a transnationall capacitation to test and improve project results with stakeholders and to validate and ensure the quality and adequacy of the contents and of the e-platform. WP5 CREATION OF A NETWORK FOR THE PROMOTION OF RURAL MOBILITY POCILIES AND THE PROMOTION OF FUTURE EUROPEAN RURAL MOBILITY AGENTS: this project will serve as a starting point for the creation of a stable network of collaboration for rural mobility in Europe though the creation and promotion of a working group for rural mobility and the definition of an action plan for such group Partners will develop a proposal for an EU curriculum for rural mobility agents at the end of the project WP6 DISSEMINATION AND MULTIPLIER EVENTS. The project will implement a set of adhoc actions for dissemination to guarantee a good project impact and the transference and maintenance of project results during and after the project finalization, including the organization of local events in each member country to properly disseminate the outputs and to involve stakeholders<< Results >>Digital and Green skills are essential for the decarbonization of economy. The project will try to cover the specific lack of training in mobility solutions (mainly applied to e-mobility) and digital opportunities for rural agents. The e-mobility industry is moving fast and we need to be ready to apply new knowledge and technologies in our daily life. Therefore, in response to these needs, MobiRural will develop a practical and dynamic training program and training platform for rural development agents working in rural areas. The training will be available in the e-platform also for the general public. The project will also set the basis for the development of a curriculum for European agents for rural mobility.So, the project will have the following Results:A.Training course on mobility for rural areas (Result 1)B.E-platform for the implementation of the training, auto evaluation tool, and the promotion of best practices, exchange of experiences and improvement of policies towards rural mobility (Result 2)But apart from project direct results, the project will also have the following direct outcomes:-A training action to validate the course and the e-platform among selected stakeholders-Handbook with best practices and tools for rural mobility In Europe (capitalisation of previous projects and initiatives)-Setting of a network for the promotion of policies and initiatives for rural mobility (project partners + other interested entities)-Setting the basis for a European Agent for rural mobility (proposal for an EU curriculum)A need analysis has been developed prior to the writing of this proposal and although a deeper study with stakeholders will be implemented at the beginning of the project (questionnaires and interviews), the results of the project will contain:A.The content of the learning courses will contain at least the following modules:1.Compilation of good practices in rural mobility2.Digital tools available to explore the new opportunities created by technological and other forms of innovation.3.Rural shared mobility. Sustainable mobility is vital and therefore there is a need for alternative public transport services to guarantee mobility in rural areas, without a car. So-called flexible transport services or transportation on demand point the way to possible solutions, as innovative practices to encourage creative economically viable solutions that can be effective and efficient while being environmentally friendly.4.No mobility: E-tools for online services (bureaucracy, training, work,…)5.E-mobility solutions: technologies and new opportunities from the industry. 6.E-wastes: strategies for the management of new wastes produced for e-mobility in rural areas7.Policies and regulations for rural mobilities B.All the key materials, documents and media produced within the project will be made available on the E-platform. The platform will contain the course, a basic guide to implement the course, an auto evaluation section and other sections for networking and exchange of experiencesThe partners will accredit the participation of rural development agents in training actions. Participants will receive a certificate of attendance, indicating the content, the duration of the training and the result obtained. Rural development agents will be able to transfer the training received to the general population, who will be able to access the platform (rural development agents usually perform training courses for the general public in their municipalities/counties).At the same time, these rural development agents, after receiving the training, will be empowered to apply mobility solutions in their environment, according to the mobility needs of the specific populations in their field of action. The courses will be developed so that this can be carried out in a structured way so that the results are those required for each group of population.

The strategic objective of PRO-CLIMATE is to support communities to proactively adapt to climate change through social transformation and behavioural change. To achieve this, PRO-CLIMATE will identify social tipping points and policy actions that enable systemic transformation to be achieved across social systems. PRO-CLIMATE will adopt an approach guided by the concept of systems thinking, which views communities as complex systems that are interconnected and influenced by multiple factors, socio-economic and environmental. By understanding and leveraging their dynamics, it will then develop strategies and interventions that promote social transformation and behavioural change. This will result in a robust framework for designing effective methodologies and tools to foster proactively adaptive behaviours and facilitate transformative changes. A set of diverse (in terms of climate change problems and socio-economic contexts) case studies across Europe will be an instrumental tool for the co-creation, validation, and upscaling of this framework by running living labs and bringing stakeholders together to understand community governance and institutional structures, and to also pilot and validate the project's behaviour change activities. The outputs of PRO-CLIMATE will include: a) the identification of key components of climate adaptation systems, their interactions, systemic interdependencies and trade-offs, b) the design, implementation, and evaluation of a living lab framework, c) the identification of social tipping points and leverage actions for policy makers, d) the development of a multi agent computer model for European socio-ecological systems to allow a realistic analysis of existing and future policy scenarios likely to produce systemic transformations, and e) policy recommendations to accelerate systemic change.

AI4Gov is a joint effort of policy makers, public institutions / organizations, legal, Social Science and Humanities and Big Data/AI experts to unveil the potentials of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data technologies for developing evidence-based innovations, policies, and policy recommendations to harness the public sphere, political power, and economic power for democratic purposes. The project will also uphold fundamental rights and values standards of individuals when using AI and Big Data technologies. Hence, the project aims to contribute to the promising research landscape that seeks to address ethical, trust, discrimination, and bias issues by providing an in-depth analysis and solutions addressing the challenges that various stakeholders in modern democracies are faced with when attempts are made to mitigate the negative implications of Big Data and AI. In this direction, the project will introduce solutions and frameworks towards a two-fold sense, to facilitate policymakers on the development of automated, educated and evidence-based decisions and to increase the trust of citizens in the democratic processes and institutions. Moreover, the project will leverage the capabilities of state-of-the-art tools for providing un-bias, discrimination-free, fair, and trusted AI. These tools will be validated in terms of their ability to provide technical and/or organisational measures, causal models for bias and discrimination, and standardized methodologies for achieving fairness in AI.