1. Smart Villages in practice
Examples and messages from the ENRD Thematic Group
Enrique Nieto
ENRD Contact Point
#SmartVillages

2. Cooperation and partnerships
Smart Villages
Jobs
Basic services
Digital
Social
Challenges
Opportunities
Villages
Cooperation and partnerships
People
Future vision

3. Socio-Economic development
Smart Villages
Vision – our village/territory of the future
Socio-Economic development
Basic services
Innovation
Low carbon economy (including circular economy)
Digital economy
Urban-rural links
Local Asset based specialisation
Training and education
Renewable energy
Health and care
Mobility
Broadband
Social innovation
Digital innovation
How to sustain it

4. Smart Villages There is no one model for Smart Villages
It is a process, all villages can be Smart

5. Local Fibre Networks Sweden
Swedish Local Fibre Alliance supports thousands of projects in rural areas – fibre to the farm.
Mobilise businesses, farmers, citizens – aggregate demand..
Business plan. Attract public + private finance + community time
93% owned by municipality. Around 50% fibre access. Open networks
Negotiate with alternative providers
Increased competition,
Lower prices,
greater access

6. Community Broadband – Molenwaard (Netherlands)
Financing
EUR (Estimations)
Private investment & crowdfunding
loans and public funding
Total
(estimation)

7. Digital Villages (Germany)
Acting at all levels of the local digital ecosystem
ORGANISATIONAL
ECOSYSTEM
SOCIETY
Residents
Local Business
Clubs & Assoc.
Municipality
Science
One ICT Service
Smart Village Living Lab
DOMAIN
SPECIFIC
ICT SERVICES
Local Supply
Communication
Mobility
Government
Work & Education
Med & Care
ICT Partner & Network
TECHNICAL
PLATFORM
Basic Plattform Services
Event-oriented Architecture
Data
Manage-ment
Intelligence
Connecting domain specific services
Business Model
The animated slice explaines the overall picture and especially how an ict service is embedded into the rest of teh rural ecosystem
Digitalization Roadmap
INFRASTRUCTURE 5G

8. Community Hydro Scheme – Braemar (Scotland)
Financing
EUR
Local Sources (Council, Community Trust, National Park) - Feasibility
33 000
Community Energy Scotland (Repayable grant with interest if successful) – Preparatory period
Crowd funding
Total

9. Bioenergy Village Germany Financing EUR Cooperative Shares 300 000
Cooperative Loans
Federal Government – Subsidies
LEADER
Total

10. Alston Moor – The UK’s First Social Enterprise Town
Rural parish in Cumbria (pop. 2,100), nearest town-40min, limited public transport, reduction in services….
24 social enterprises: digital cooperative, retail, catering, tourism, social care, community transport, education, social care, health…..
50 jobs supported
£2.2m turnover
200 volunteers

11. Imagining and building future
Jobs
Youth
Housing
Health
Education
Mobility
Connectivity
Culture
And many more

12. CLLD and Smart Villages
RD supports the creation of state of the art community owned broadband
RD supports the rolling out of a mobility app developed by a social enterprise to other rural areas in France
RD supports a social enterprise providing a training itinerary to support rural SMEs in their digital transformation
CLLD cooperation measure is used to build a regional network of co-working spaces accross an entire region

13. Arctic Smart Rural Community (Lapland, Finland)
One of the most sparsely populated areas;
Arctic Smartness brand = bottom up approach to smart specialization;
Identify capital outflow from villages on energy and food;
Smart strategies for local production and adding value;
Integrated action on education, entrepreneurship, investment in food and energy hubs, procurement, R+D;
Case Kierinki: 116 inhabitants. ProAgria/Luke
Strong stakeholder involvement from village + local (LEADER) to regional levels

14. easy-to-access mobile medical service Broadband Fibre in Östra Bräcke
…and many more local projects
Smart Village of the Future - Project Ruhtinansalmi
easy-to-access mobile medical service
Broadband Fibre in Östra Bräcke
Local Computer Courses for young and old
An on-demand rural bus service in rural Wales
On-line Support for Promotion of Local Businesses
Innovative rural learning facilitiestackle youth depopulation
Geoparks bringing together local business through “quality pacts”
Socially Responsible Wine Tourism
Quality of Life through Proximity

15. Current European tools
A wide range of existing EU and national frameworks:
EAFRD (LEADER, Cooperation, Basic Services
ESIF (ERDF, ESF, EMFF – Smart Specialisation)
Strategies for digitization + renewable energy…
Horizon, Financial Instruments, INTERREG….
Growing interest - but often not called Smart Villages
How to use to empower/enable local communities?

16. Flexible tools to enable rural communities
Enabling a transition
Departure
Declining jobs
Inadequate Services
Digital divide
Depopulation
Arrival
Digital transformation
Low carbon, circular economy
Service innovation
New value chains
Rural –urban cooperation
Flexible tools to enable rural communities
to make the transition

17. SUPPORT FOR SMART VILLAGE INITIATIVES
SUSTAINABILITY –SCALE UP
Cooperation
Marketing
Animation
Small scale investments
Pilots
Community
Contribution
Research contracts
Technical/ feasibility studies
Training
How to ensure that LEADER can mobilise these tools effectively for local communities?
Needs audits
IDEA

18. Some key messages from the Thematic Group
Rural policy should mobilise assets and empower communities in order to enhance the social, economic and environmental well-being of rural areas” (Edinburgh Policy Statement OECD April )
Smart Village Strategies are not about doing for or to - but with and by local people
Smart Village strategies are not there to support isolated initiatives –nor to produce an extra layer of paper plans - but to enable communities to progress along an agreed path for change.

19. Next steps ENRD Thematic Group on Smart Villages
Orientations for using all policy tools available to help Smart Villages to emerge – now and in future. Meetings and briefs on:
How to develop Smart Village strategies
How to use key policy instruments (avoiding duplication)
How to combine policy instruments more effectively,
Multilevel digital strategies
Platform for linking initiatives accross Europe

20. Sources of information
Rural Review on Smart Villages
Project Brochure on Digital and Social innovation
Smart Villages Portal

21. Sources of information
Smart Villages Video
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22. Thank you very much!