The H2020 project on Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas (SIMRA) focused on understanding social innovation and innovative governance in agriculture, forestry and rural development, and how to boost them, particularly in marginalised rural areas across Europe, with a focus on the Mediterranean region (including non-EU). Its spatial focus was on Marginalised Rural Areas, which had not previously been defined. The European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion (ESPON) analysed accessibility as an indirect measure of the potential for activities and enterprises in regions to reach markets and activities in other regions (ESPON, 2009). It highlights the importance of accessibility as a driver in the development of regions, noting that roads tend to ‘shape contiguous spaces of higher accessibility’. The process of mapping the characteristics of Marginalised Rural Areas led to the establishment of a set of filters, or contextual information, for use in their identification, and factors associated with marginalised people. One such characteristic is that of accessibility, using a measure of the density of major road networks, classified for NUTS 3 and regional boundaries. The background to the mapping and its application are described in Price et al. (2017). References: ESPON 2009. Territorial Dynamics in Europe: Trends in Accessibility. Territorial Observation No. 2. November 2009. pp 24. OECD 2011. OECD Regional Typology. OECD, Paris. Price, M., Miller, D.R., McKeen, M., Slee, W. and Nijnik, M. 2017. Categorisation of marginalised rural areas (MRAs). Deliverable 3.1, Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas (SIMRA). Report to the European Commission, pp. 57. 10.5281/zenodo.3625493 Sources of data for mapping were the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) 2013 European Commission, © EuroGeographics, © FAO (UN), © TurkStat Source: European Commission – Eurostat/GISCO© for administrative boundaries. All other boundary data were extracted from the GADM database (www.gadm.org), version 2.8, November 2015. These can be used for non-commercial purposes only. It is not allowed to redistribute these data, or use them for commercial purposes, without prior consent. See the website for more information.

The background to the content and creation of the datasets is provided in: Price, M., Miller, D.R., McKeen, M., Slee, W. and Nijnik, M. 2017. Categorisation of marginalised rural areas (MRAs). Deliverable 3.1, Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas (SIMRA). Report to the European Commission, pp. 57. 10.5281/zenodo.3625493