{"id":67956,"date":"2018-12-20T14:16:45","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T13:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cesie.org\/?p=67956"},"modified":"2025-08-27T16:19:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T14:19:41","slug":"liverur-smes-rural-areas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cesie.org\/en\/higher-education-and-research\/liverur-smes-rural-areas\/","title":{"rendered":"LIVERUR: developing sustainable alternatives for the SMEs in rural areas across Europe, Asia and Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The European Union considers the\u00a0small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises (SMEs)<\/a>\u00a0vital for a well-functioning economy in rural areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to develop those rural regions throughout the EU, the project LIVERUR, under the call\u00a0H2020 within the framework of the Research and Innovation Action (RIA)<\/strong>, create models of sustainable business for the\u00a0SMEs in 13 partner countries<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis project represents a strong and valuable opportunity, based on establishing a circular economy within the selected pilot regions, to extend the economic horizons and to amplify the scope of the rural territories in the European space\u201d, declared Dr. \u00c1ngel Pablo Cano, LIVERUR Coordinator and Director of the International Project Office at UCAM. It is a research and innovation project financed by the European Union composed of 23 partners from 13 countries (France, Greece, Austria, Germany, Tunisia, Czech Republic, Malta, Portugal, Turkey, Italy, Slovenia, Latvia and Spain). The project lasts 36 months and will be implemented from May 2018 to April 202<\/strong>1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work is developed in\u00a0several phases<\/a>, from the identification and study of existing business models to the development of a new innovative model tailored to the needs and characteristics identified in each of the piloting areas. A further phase is the establishment and mapping of the 13 pilot areas, in which the new business model will be introduced and evaluated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 11th and 12th of December 2018, the German partner\u00a0CLEOPA<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0UCAM<\/a>\u00a0organized a\u00a0meeting in the Innovation Park Hennigsdorf in Berlin<\/a>\u00a0with more than 50 attendees from all 23 project partners. In this meeting the advances in business models study and the research of the \u201cLiving Lab\u201d methodology were shared and discussed, as well as definition and mapping of the pilot zones and the guidelines for the digital stakeholder\u00a0platform \u201cRAIN\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0were outlined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next\u00a0project meeting will be in Azores<\/a>, Portugal in June of 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the project<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

LIVERUR \u2013 Living Lab research concept in Rural Areas<\/a> has received funding from the European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No 773757.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project aims at expanding an extremely innovative business model called Living Labs (LL) among the rural regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partners<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The project partnership holds together 23 partners:<\/p>\n\n\n\n