Rural Areas - People - Innovative Development (RAPIDO)
Despite three generations of rural development policies and with the 4th starting in 2007, rural areas still face considerable problems. Many problems of European societies such as an ageing population, high unemployment rates, social disparities and the lack of adaptive potential to the global market are more pronounced in rural areas than elsewhere. To overcome these problems, it is essential to link public, private and inter-sectoral initiatives to foster innovation. RAPIDO has been established to analyse current best practices concerning the development of innovation in agriculture, forestry, the food sector and the wider rural areas, as well as to analyse methods to transfer knowledge to different target groups.