1. Madrid 7 -9 March 20071 FARO EU Kick-off Meeting Introduction to the project by Marta Pérez-Soba

2. Madrid 7 -9 March 20072 Overview presentation Project characteristics Project frame Aim Questions to be answered The Work Packages Challenges Time schedule

3. Madrid 7 -9 March 20073 Project characteristics FP6 STREP Scientific Support to Policies 11 partners (+ 3 sub-contractors) from 5 EU countries Interdisciplinary team January 2007 – December 2008 1 M€ Scientific coordination: Alterra (NL)

4. Madrid 7 -9 March 20074 Partners 1 Alterra 2 LEI 3 UoE 7 WU 4 IAFE-NRI 5 UNEW 6 UNIBUC- ECO 8 JRC 9 REDR 10 SRI 11 WING 12 MNP 13 IGSO 14 Grupo Alba

5. Madrid 7 -9 March 20075 Project frame Policies related to Rural Development Background: Cohesion Policy in Support of Growth and Jobs: Community Strategic Guidelines, 2007-2013 User: EU policy makers (DG AGRI/DG REGIO) Coverage: EU27 Constraint: use existing pan European data

6. Madrid 7 -9 March 20076 Aim: ‘The lighthouse’ To provide guidance for future rural development policies in Europe To provide guidance for future rural development policies in Europe

7. Madrid 7 -9 March 20077 Questions to be answered What are major trends and driving forces affecting rural regions?

8. Madrid 7 -9 March 20078 In Spain abandonment of agricultural practices from 1992 – 2002: 2 M ha agricultural land changed into forest, natural grasslands and no man’s land 1948 2001

9. Madrid 7 -9 March 20079 Questions to be answered What are major trends and driving forces affecting rural regions? At which scales do they operate?

10. Madrid 7 -9 March 200710 Scaling Integrating socio- economic and bio- physical variables Defining the appropriate spatial scale to combine all the variables considered in a meaningful way

11. Madrid 7 -9 March 200711 Biophysical & socio-economic variables have a different spatial scale NUTS-2 regions LANMAP2

12. Madrid 7 -9 March 200712 Questions to be answered What are major trends and driving forces affecting rural regions? At which scales do they operate? Which of these processes are amenable to change through RD policies and where? i.e. where EU support for rural development will create the most value added at EU level? How rural policies might be adapted in the future to take account of these processes?

13. Madrid 7 -9 March 200713 The Work Packages WP 1 Coordinatio n and managemen t ALTERRA WP 1 Coordinatio n and managemen t ALTERRA WP 2 Past trends and patterns LEI WP 2 Past trends and patterns LEI WP 3 Institutions and the governance of rural development and the role of ICT NCL WP 3 Institutions and the governance of rural development and the role of ICT NCL WP 4 Foresight Analysis UCL WP 4 Foresight Analysis UCL WP 5 Integrated evaluation IPTS WP 5 Integrated evaluation IPTS WP 6 Communica tion and disseminati on ALTERRA WP 6 Communica tion and disseminati on ALTERRA

14. Madrid 7 -9 March 200714 Challenges Describe the different ruralities in Europe

15. Madrid 7 -9 March 200715 Lapland Southern Alps Scotland Andalucia

16. Madrid 7 -9 March 200716 Challenges Describe the different ruralities in Europe (the framework) How governance and ICT influence RD (conference "Bridging the Broadband Gap: Benefits of broadband for rural areas and less developed regions": 14-15 May 2007) Assess future uncertainty: conditional probabilistic futures (versus deterministic scenarios) Integration of quantitative (model chain) and qualitative (SWOT) approaches Case studies representative of the EU ruralities Integrated evaluation of foresight results Communicate science to policy makers

17. Madrid 7 -9 March 200717 FARO EU time schedule (Meetings) 2007 2008 2009 Project start Project end Workshops scenario Kick-off Project meeting 1 Project meeting 2 Final Project meeting Workshop validation modelling Workshop validation integrative analysis

18. Madrid 7 -9 March 200718 FARO EU time schedule (WPs)

19. Madrid 7 -9 March 200719 Questions?

20. Madrid 7 -9 March 200720 Spatial Regional Framework Determine range of socio-economic indicators for NUTS regions Overlap NUTS regions with Environmental zones Carry out PCA by Env zones to identify best regional indicators Clusters according to variability Describe the average socio-economic and land cover characteristics Identify known inconsistencies Identify key issues for RD