AEIDL’s work in Rural and Territorial Development is fast expanding. From a solid basis with DESIRA, SHERPA and MOVING projects in mid-2023 we are now involved in 8 Horizon Europe projects, as in addition to those, BEATLES, GRANULA and, CODECS started in late 2022, and TOOLS4CAP and GRASSCEILING started in January 2023 and are already in full steam.  

TOOLS4CAP held its inaugural Kick Off meeting on February 6 and 7, where AEIDL presented its plans to ensure a robust dialogue with stakeholders and EU institutions about the project outputs.  TOOLS4CAP will support the implementation of National #CAP Strategic Plans and lay the foundations for sound preparation of post-2027 Strategic Plans, whereas GRASSCEILING aims to empower rural women and increase the number of socio-ecological innovations led by women in agriculture, the rural economy and rural communities.  

Furthermore, later this year our two new projects FUTURAL and RURACTIVE will begin which means that AEIDL’s Rural and Territorial Development work has grown tremendously in only a year. 

To support this much expanded and challenging set of projects, AEIDL is delighted to welcome back Blanca Casares from her maternity leave. She will put all her vast agricultural expertise to lead BEATLES and TOOLS4CAP projects. Because of the expansion not only on policy but also in a range of dissemination and communications tasks, we also welcomed last February Raphael García, who is an experienced journalist that had worked in a variety of international media such as Deutsche Welle, MIT Tech Review, Wired, Business Insider, Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, The Guardian, among others, and has experience in the Brussels bubble.   

Finally, we have a new Rural and Territorial Development Expert, Leticia Abarca, who will focus on our rural digital and innovation projects DESIRA, CODECS and FUTURAL, as our dear colleague Lucia Garrido is moving on to a brilliant new position in Eurocities.  Wish them luck!