This deliverable prepares PoliRural partners for pilots, especially laying the groundwork for two forthcoming tasks - T4.3 Regional Needs Gathering & Analysis and T4.4 Needs-Policy Mapping. The deliverable introduces key concepts, practical guides and templates for partners in participating regions prior to the start of pilot phase. These guidelines allow the information to be collected in a structured manner to facilitate further analysis and evaluation. This deliverable provides guidelines for two purposes in pilots. Firstly, it provides preliminary guidelines for gathering needs (task 4.3), which make rural professions and areas attractive or unattractive for established populations and recent or potential newcomers. Secondly, it provides templates and guidelines to support policy mapping (task 4.4.), to evaluate policies against needs of rural areas.