Resilient Rural Areas

Smart strategy for your community

The project aims to strengthen the resilience of small rural communities by developing locally adapted and smart strategies for crisis preparedness, sustainability, and collaboration. At a time when climate change, societal crises, and declining biodiversity affect local communities, the project seeks to provide residents and local actors with the tools to build resilient, vibrant, and long-term sustainable rural areas. The project increases knowledge on how a community can develop a local smart strategy for its development through workshops, training sessions, knowledge exchange, and local pilot tests. Rural actors gain strengthened competencies in digital solutions, local development, sustainability, and crisis preparedness. By initiating networks for small actors, associations, and businesses, the project promotes engagement, innovation, and new opportunities for local services, the economy, and community participation.

What do we mean by “smart”?

Smart rural communities create creative solutions to local challenges by building on the area’s strengths. Residents work together for sustainable development, often using innovation and digital technology. Rural areas become “smarter” through collaboration and networking—locally with other rural areas and with towns in the Upplandsbygd region. Both existing initiatives and new ideas are developed and funded by public and/or private actors.

Local and International

The project is carried out in collaboration with two other LEADER organisations in Latvia and Lithuania. Through shared expertise in smart rural strategies, an international partnership is formed with a strong focus on learning and joint development. Local leaders are trained in Smart Village strategies, and 18 leaders and stakeholders participate in international study visits to gain new perspectives, contacts, and best practices.

By supporting local groups in testing new solutions and creating strategies based on their own conditions, the project strengthens both preventive capacity and local preparedness. In doing so, the project contributes to increased resilience, ensuring that rural communities are better equipped to face future challenges.