At the Politecnico di Milano, Dr Nina Cvar and Dr Jure Trilar, together with Rotunda, the Slovenian partners, attended a two-day meeting (3-4 December 2024) of the Horizonje SmartERA project, which brings together experts and practitioners who are accelerating innovation in rural areas through solutions for smart rural communities. Organised by project partner Poliedra and the project’s lead coordinators from the Bruno Kessler Foundation, the meeting featured presentations, workshops and discussions on methodologies, pilot communities and innovative tools tailored for digital solutions being deployed in rural areas.
The first day started with an overview of the project’s progress and current objectives, followed by a detailed session on the multidimensional methodology for assessing the “smartness” of rural areas – the SESAM methodology, and then participants delved into the interactive co-design of Smart and Sustainable Innovation Packages (SIPs).
Technological innovation was the focus of the afternoon, with sessions on the development of digital solutions, community engagement strategies and pilot activities in the six rural test sites. A data dashboard was also presented to the participants, and the pilots presented the activities they had carried out over the previous months.
The last day of the meeting was marked by an emphasis on the role of interdisciplinarity in the research and findings of the different departments of the Polytechnic University of Milan. The day concluded with workshops on policy orientations and roadmap for next steps in the project.
