EDORA - European Development Opportunities in Rural Areas

Main research areas

• Assessment of the present state of European rural areas’ development, their strengths and weaknesses based on the most appropriate economic, social and environmental indicators that can be collected European wide.
• Analysis of endogenous development opportunities of rural areas to be better exploited for achieving improved competitiveness and their effect on European cohesion.
• Identification of the most prominent types of rural areas and the drivers of a favourable development there.
• Study of under-used opportunities for cooperation between towns in rural areas and the degree to which they could contribute to more competitiveness and cohesion both, on a regional as well as on European level.
• Establishment of some projections on the likely evolution of the different types of rural areas over the medium-term future (i.e. the next 10 – 15 years).

Main results envisaged

• Data input to the ESPON Database.
• Indicators offering additional information on the different types of European rural areas and new complex indicators on development opportunities, socio-economic situation and competitiveness of these areas.
• Amendment of the typology used for this project.
• European maps of the typology of different rural areas, their demographic situation, accessibility to services, their development opportunities (particularly outside agriculture and forestry), different alternatives of medium-term development paths and the impact of these development paths on the competitiveness of rural areas and the national and European cohesion.