Author name: Joana Vieira

After an amazing kick-off, the partners of NES take part in the Participatory Lab “Entrepreneurial and social innovation skills driving inclusion and tackling the innovation divide” in the European Week of Regions 2023, on October 10th. The European Week of Regions and Cities is an annual four-day event in which cities and regions demonstrate their capacity to stimulate economic growth and employment and effectively implement the European Union’s cohesion policy. It emphasises the essential role of local and regional authorities in promoting sustainable European governance. This European Union initiative aligns with our project mission as a pioneering initiative dedicated to reviving rural areas and empowering adults aged 45+, SMEs, and micro-firms through social innovation in the context of the green and digital transition. It was interesting to see how aligned some of the conclusions reached in this session are with the objectives of our project: · To achieve an inclusive and sustainable future, we must ensure that no one is left behind in the green and digital transformation. · Inclusive communities need to be thinking beyond the urban centres, providing digital skills, fostering social innovation, and sharing knowledge among rural areas.

The first transnational meeting of NewEcoSmart was held in Brussels, Belgium and it is an important step to achieving the project goals. This meeting marked the beginning of the project life and was the time and space to align synergies and to clarify the first steps that need to be done in the next months, namely, the development of the surveys to investigate skills and needs in terms of digital and green transition in rural areas among enterprises and workers in the habitat sector and the Digital Competence Model. The consortium was hosted at the European Commission’s premises and the Policy Officer of the European Social Fund+, the project’s co-financing program, also participated in the meeting.

A pioneering effort focused on revitalizing rural areas and empowering individuals aged 45+, SMEs and micro firms through social innovation, with an emphasis on green and digital advancement. On August 30th, the partners of NewEcoSmart took the first steps to enhance capacity building and training, towards the green and digital transition, in an online meeting. This twin transition is the intersection between green and digital, where sustainable approaches and digital technologies complement each other. The green transition involves changing the economy and industrial practices to make them more sustainable and ecologically responsible, and this includes the adoption of technologies that reduce the environmental impact. This is an ongoing process and demands multiple investments to actually reach people and communities, especially those in rural areas. To this purpose, a Consortium led by CETEM (Spain) and seven more partners of 3 countries – from Spain, Amuebla, Ayuntamiento de Yecla and CTIC; from Portugal, SHINE and AD ELO; and from Italy, CEIPES and UNINA – was selected by the European Commission to implement NewEcoSmart, until July 2025. NewEcoSmart joins a diverse group of experts, with industry experts, educational and vocational institutions, social innovation advocates, and local government entities. Their know-how and experience are aimed at reinvigorating rural regions with a strong heritage in producing Habitat-related goods. The project’s core objective is to address the skill requirements in ecological, digital, and entrepreneurial domains for adults aged 45 and above, as well as small to medium-sized businesses and micro-enterprises. On October 9th, the consortium will meet at the European Commission’s premises in Brussels for the first face-to-face meeting, which will also include the Policy Officer of the European Social Fund+, the project’s co-financing programme.