Welcome to SIMRA's 5th newsletter!
SIMRA (Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas) is a four-year project (2016-2020) funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme. It aims to advance understanding of social innovation and innovative governance in agriculture, forestry and rural development – and how to boost them – in marginalised rural areas across Europe and around the Mediterranean, including non-EU countries.
Welcome back to SIMRA’s newsletter, where you will discover plenty of examples of social innovation from throughout Europe, whether through the researcher’s perspective with the example of refugee inclusion in Norway, or through the eye of local implementers with our new brochures on the Balkans and mountain areas.
SIMRA's team has been participating in a lot of events recently (ISIRC 2018, XVI ERDN conference, AISRE 2018, Forum Carpathicum, …). Come and find us during the next events we will be attending to find out more
about our project! You can also visit our website or follow us on social networks!
Find out more about SIMRA!
Researchers believe Norwegian outdoor life contributes to good integration. This is the starting point for an Innovation Action led by the Eastern Norway Research Institute, one of the SIMRA partners. Read more here: http://www.simra-h2020.eu/index.php/2018/09/24/get-out-there-to-get-in-here/
Find out more on SIMRA's Innovation Action by clicking here: http://www.simra-h2020.eu/index.php/simra-innovation-actions/
SIMRA was at the ISIRC conference in September!
In September, a group of SIMRA researchers participated in the International Social Innovation Research Conference 2018, which was held in Heidelberg, Germany, to discuss findings and advances within SIMRA with international experts in the field. Read more here: http://www.simra-h2020.eu/index.php/2018/10/10/simra-at-the-international-social-innovation-research-conference-2018/
Have a look at the examples we collected of social innovation in the Balkans here and of social innovation in mountain areas here .This collection of examples aims at concretely illustrating social innovation through the presentation of local on-going initiatives throughout Europe and the Mediterranean basin. Our collection of brochures is available here .
SIMRA’s evaluation framework for Social Innovation explained in a video
Become a Social Innovation evaluation expert by watching our 5’ video! Click here . “Smart Villages” aim to improve the attractiveness and well-being of inhabitants in rural areas and will be a priority of the next Rural Development policy. Social innovation can play a key role in the development of rural areas as SIMRA presented to policy-makers during a policy breakfast at the European Parliament in June '18. Read more here . Read the story of Marisa Rodríguez who arrived in the mountainous village of Tabuyo del Monte in the 1970s as a rural nurse and who became completely devoted to the collective story of this village and to social innovation. Read more here .
SIMRA event
What’s the perfect recipe for a successful Rural Hackathon? Here are the secrets to a memorable experience: the Rural Hackathon “SIparte”, held on the 4th and 5th October 2018 in Feltre (northeastern Italy).
Ingredients: a beautiful, lively historical building, 24 future entrepreneurs who aim to value and contribute to the local development of their territory in the province of Belluno, a group of experts to mentor them, the warmth of the sun, fresh mountain air, and great food. To read more about this event, follow this link .
There are many ways to engage with SIMRA:
Suggest a Social Innovation example for our database by completing
the questionnaire .
Contribute to our blog
Download our resources
Follow us on social media: Twitter Facebook
Start a discussion in our LinkedIn group or in our ResearchGate group .
Get in touch
You can contact us by writing to:
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 677622