Women engaged and seeking to become involved in innovative agriculture and innovations in rural areas
General public/civic society
Policy and decision-makers

Innovation Cards

Innovation cards are designed to spark creative conversations around political, social, environmental, economic and technological innovations. They invite to explore new ideas, challenge existing paradigms and find innovative solutions to address sustaina

Innovation cards are a tool to facilitate new approaches to solve rural sustainability issues. WP2 Foresight and Trend Analysis researched sustainability problems across 9 different European countries within three rural contexts:

Regional context	National context	Rural context
Atlantic	Germany	Rural village
Atlantic	Ireland	Remote rural area
Atlantic	The Netherlands	Rural area close to city
Central/Eastern	Czechia	Rural village
Central/Eastern	Slovenia	Rural area close to city
Nordic/Baltic	Finland	Remote rural area
Nordic/Baltic	Sweden	Rural area close to city
Mediterranean	Italy	Rural village
Mediterranean	Spain	Remote rural area

Relevant stakeholders such as representatives from NGOs, LEADER groups, advisory organisations, research and educational organisations as well as local farmers, entrepreneurs and policy makers across all countries participated in workshops and interviews to uncover the most prevalent sustainability challenges.

Out of 23 type of sustainability problems found, most common ones were the lack of infrastructure, facilities, local services, amenities and activities (12%) and the lack of sustainability wisdom (10%). Also, the lack of economic diversification, restructuring and jobs (9%), the lack of social capital, cohesion and communality (9%) and the selective population decline (8%), alienation of people from food production (6%) and the lack of public transport and consequent need of using cars (6%) were ranking high. These top-7 topics covered 61% of the sustainability problems to be removed.

To address these specific issues faced by rural communities, new approaches are needed. Innovation cards serve as a resource for rural changemakers to reflect and uncover new innovations to tackle sustainability issues in their own communities. The cards provide guidance in four main categories: Political, social, environmental and economic/technological innovations.