GI SMART (Geographical Indications’ contribution to smart territorial development and sustainability. Insights for GIs producers, policy makers, consumers and local communities) is a four-year lump-sum project to undertake research and demonstration activities (innovative pilot action) and provide evidence-based recommendations to strengthen the contribution of the system of geographical indications (GIs) to sustainable development, in particular to achieve the objectives of the EU Farm to Fork strategy by fostering the implementation of sustainability strategies by producers and their recognition by consumers, as well as to propose a better design of GIs policy to foster their delivery of sustainable agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries, as well as more sustainable food systems. Our 17 partners (15 beneficiaries and 2 Associated Partners) representing 10 countries bring together leading academic, NGOs and stakeholder organisations to provide a multi-actor approach to ensure the project objectives are delivered with maximum impact. This proposal relates to the topic “Investigating the contribution of geographical indications to sustainable development and optimizing support for newly establish schemes” (HORIZON-CL6-2023-COMMUNITIES-01-04). GI SMART aims to assess and strengthen the contribution of GIs to the EU “Farm to Fork” strategy for sustainable food systems in Europe by providing: i) better understanding of the contribution of GIs schemes to sustainable development (including the F2F strategy); ii) improving the perception of sustainability attributes of GIs schemes that are widely implemented by the producers and their perception by consumers, local communities and society at large, iii) better and smart policy design and implementation of GIs policy to foster their delivery of sustainable agriculture and fishery, healthy and sustainable diets and sustainable food systems.

ESIRA acknowledges that innovative social economy initiatives, focusing on local networks, competences, and resources, are able to recognise the important role of citizen-led activities to fulfil the needs of rural areas, especially marginalised ones. Nevertheless, many policies and initiatives fail to effectively support them and/or engage the more vulnerable groups of population. The main objective of ESIRA is to contribute to the rollout of place-based innovative social economy initiatives for rural inclusion and development in (marginalised) rural areas by supporting enabling frameworks, well-interconnected policy architecture and directly piloting innovative solutions which ultimately build more inclusive, resilient and prosperous rural areas. To achieve it, ESIRA will implement a work plan focused on (i) the research of community-led rural innovation spaces able to connect and empower actors, reinforce the social capital and sense of community, considering the great diversity of rural areas within Europe, and eventually (ii) nurturing and piloting social economy initiatives that strengthen the inclusiveness and living conditions of different groups of population in vulnerable situation, from the improvement in the provision of (social) services, economic diversification, and sustainable management of the natural capital. This will enable to (iii) stocktake and formulate recommendations for policymakers to better support the third sector and local communities, increasing the understanding of the needs and challenges of vulnerable groups of population and social economy, and (iv) boost the knowledge-exchange among local actors, building up their capacities and facilitating the scale up and replication of social economy initiatives across Rural Europe. 9 regions in 7 European countries will be involved in the project. The exploitation and dissemination activities will aim at expanding those regional spaces and replicating our concept in new regions.

EU's agricultural and forestry land provides a wide range of public goods (PG) and ecosystem services (ESS) on which society depends, yet land use decisions and society often under-value these . PEGASUS will develop innovative, practical ways of making PG and ESS concepts accessible and operational: it will identify how, where and when cost-effective mechanisms and tools for policy, business and practice can most effectively be applied, increasing the sustainability of primary production in pursuit of the EU2020 vision of 'smart, sustainable and inclusive growth'. Recognising that the appreciation of PGs is context-dependent, PEGASUS uses social-ecological systems as an analytical framework to explore systemic inter-dependencies among natural, social and economic processes. It will adopt participatory action research with public and private actors and stakeholders to better understand the range of policy and practical challenges in different case study contexts (localities, sectors, management systems, etc.). An EU-level spatially explicit assessment of causalities between socio-political and institutional drivers, different land management systems and multiple delivery of PG will be complemented by fine-grained analysis within the case studies, and comparative meta-analysis will be applied to develop an operational framework for mapping, valorising and determining what PG and ecosystem service (ES) provision is needed and feasible within particular territories and sectors. New data-sets, transferable methods and tools that are fit-for-purpose and sensitive to the plurality of decision-making contexts will be generated. By improving recognition of the social and economic value of PG, PEGASUS will promote improved and innovative approaches to their provision by businesses and communities, and highlight specific policy improvements. It will provide specific advances in CAP, forestry and other relevant policies, underpinned by strong scientific evidence.

The overarching objective of RUSTIK is to enable rural communities’ actors and policy makers to design better strategies, initiatives and policies fostering sustainability transitions of rural areas, through an advanced understanding of different rural functionalities, characteristics and future scenarios of rural areas, their potentials and challenges. Central specific objectives are to provide (1) a robust methodological framework for functional rural areas, (2) databases integrating data of different types and sources, (3), improved strategies and governance approaches for rural decision makers and stakeholders, and (4) improved approaches for rural impact assessment and decentralised rural proofing. RUSTIK aims to substantially contribute to enhancing existing European policy tools and approaches, most of all to support the European Green Deal, the European Digital Strategy, the European pillar of Social Rights and the EU Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas of the European Union. RUSTIK addresses the topic by illuminating three key transitions in rural areas, i.e. (1) socio-economic, (2) climate change and environmental, and (3) digital. Five types of rural functions are RUSTIK’s starting point for characterising the diversity of rural areas and their capacity to respond to these transitions. In order to achieve its overarching and specific objectives, RUSTIK will (1) create a conceptual basis for functional rural areas, transition and resilience of rural areas building on previous research, (2) co-design data collection approaches, and (3) investigate policy frameworks and coordination mechanisms. Closely interrelated with all of these activities, Living Labs in 14 European Pilot Regions in 10 European countries will be the central element of an action-oriented multi-actor approach to researching rural diversity and societal transformations.