Climate change will require concerted innovative ideas and actions at the local/regional level. A sustainable European bioeconomy will not only ensure the protection of the environment and biodiversity, but will also drive the renewal of European industries, the modernisation of primary production systems and lead to the creation of jobs, particularly in rural areas, through the active participation of all regional stakeholders in their local bioeconomies. RuralBioUp project will strengthen the cooperation among regional key actors and knowledge holders, empowering them to establish an inclusive and long-lasting ecosystem (the RuralBioUp Regional Hubs) to support the mainstreaming of bio-based business models in rural areas. In particular, RuralBioUp will establish 9 Regional Hubs (30 stakeholders per Hub) in 6 EU countries, that will co-design and implement 9 Action Plans on 18 value chains. Regional Hubs will be empowered by RuralBioUp's partners with mentoring, coaching and training activities in the implementation of their Action Plans. Thanks to this, at least (a.l.) 1.000 innovators will be supported (through networking events and study visits) and a.l. 50 new collaborations fostered (e.g. partnership agreements between companies and/or farmers, solutions funded, etc.) to adopt small-scale bio-based solutions in rural areas. The project will leverage synergies between existing EU networks (EuBioNet, BioEast, etc.), clusters, and regional organisations and will build upon previous research results (Power4Bio, BE-RURAL, Enabling, Transition2Bio, Biovoices, etc.) by integrating and extending the existing knowledge and data in order to propose different rural business models and new bio-based value chains in the targeted regions, through the realisation of a digital tool (the RuralBioUp One-Stop-Shop) supporting regional actors to take science-based and informed decisions.

The overall goal of BE-Rural is to realise the potential of regional and local bio-based economies by supporting relevant actors in the participatory development of bioeconomy strategies and roadmaps. BE-Rural will investigate the particular characteristics of the selected regions at a macro level, as well as existing best practices and business models geared towards the bioeconomy. This higher-level analysis will aid in the assessment of the 'bioeconomy potential' of the selected regions. This work will set the foundation for the implementation of a series of regional Open Innovation Platforms to kick-start the co-creation process, bringing together key stakeholders from academia, policy, business and civil society to develop ideas and capitalise on this bioeconomy potential. Activities will include research & innovation capacity building workshops, educational seminars and webinars, summer schools, and Bio-based Pop-up Stores. Building from this, the proposed 'Network of Knowledge' will aim to share knowledge and lessons learned from the Open Innovation Platforms at an inter-regional level, further disseminating best practices, closing the information gap on issues related to sustainability, and increasing capacities of regional authorities and stakeholders.

Wetlands cover 5-8% of the world’s land area and have a huge capacity to sequester carbon (C). Healthy wetlands accumulate C effectively due to water-logged conditions promoting highly stable C content. The EU aims to cut GHG emissions by at least 55% by 2030.This ambition requires new GHG mitigation measures within all sectors including LULUCF sector, where wetlands as C rich ecosystem can contribute to efficiently to both EU's climate targets and biodiversity strategy. Currently there is still a high uncertainty prevails of wetlands’ spatial and C sink extent, as well as source estimates and sustainable alternatives in restoration. This hinders the efficient use of wetlands in C mitigation and adaptation in the context of other LULUCF mitigation options. We will advance the state-of-the-art on the geospatial knowledge base on wetlands and their use and degradation in Europe. We will apply a co-creation approach to develop procedural knowledge and find ways for integrating multiple targets, supporting more inclusive, community-based approaches to wetland restoration. Diverse novel experimental data on ecosystems’ responses to wetlands’ management and restoration regimes under different types of land-use and will be acquired and synthesised on biodiversity and other ecosystem services (BES). At the local level, Living Labs (LL) support and integrate interdisciplinary and multi-actor research on ecological, environmental, economic, and social issues. Models will be utilised to scale up experimental data from LLs, to gain an understanding of the potential impacts of upscaled wetland restoration options on BES provision, as well as changes in BES provision at the EU level for various policy-relevant time periods and the most policy-relevant CC mitigation and BD targets. We will assess the societal impacts of wetland restoration, especially on BES benefits and costs of different restoration approaches and wellbeing impacts at local, national, and EU levels.

Family forestry provides the main use for very large land surface areas in many European countries. Efficient and responsible use of this land is of considerable importance not only for the owners, but also for wider society.The target group of the project is family forest owners who make forest management decisions, based on advice. The project envisages to join forces and share experience from several countries in order to provide better understanding of what are the best ways and methods to channel the knowledge to those, who need it - the forest owners. The main objective of the project was to promote education of forest owners addressing forest management issues in order to improve the quality of forest management decisions, thus contributing to employment and economic development in rural areas of Europe.Project partners were five European forest-related organisations from four countries: 2 partners from Latvia, 1 from Estonia, Finland and Slovenia. Partners were of different size and scope, yet they share similar aims and target groups.The main project objective was achieved by different activities. Centre for Support of Forest Owner Cooperation oversaw the overall management and implementation of project activities by all project partner organisations.Each partner organisation set up a local project management team. Issues pertaining to project implementation and achievement of expected project results were discussed with partners during transnational project meetings.During the course of the project, several intellectual outputs were developed:1. Innovative online manual for forest owners about basic forest management; consisting of 4 parts – one for each country in its national language with a summary of manual in English. Each part of the manual is ca 200 pages. The developed manuals are printable and available in project partners's web sites.2. Interactive education materials pertaining to forest management planning. Education materials were created in national languages of the project participating organisations. Developed materials are publicly available at the web sites of the project partners. Developed intellectual outputs mentioned above are expected to assist forest owners in making better informed decisions in such areas as: forest inventory; when to use natural or artificial regeneration; what tree species to grow; selection of the right type of seedlings; what soil preparation to select, when it is needed; pre-commercial and commercial thinnings, different thinning strategies and suggested thinning models; pests and diseases in forestry; ways to make forestry more environmentally friendly; forest certification schemes; right time to harvest; regeneration; basic aspects of tree harvesting and transportation; safety in forestry; alternative uses of forest; role of forestry in carbon cycle and global environment. The above mentioned topics were developed during the project implementation. In order to exchange methods and best practices among participating organizations, four transnational joint staff training events took place.Various dissemination activities were organised, including local seminars in Estonia, Finland and Slovenia and a conference where produced intellectual results were presented to a broader audience. In addition,social media (Facebook) and partners’ web sites were used to inform about achievements in the project and to promote the developed manual and education materials.Better quality of forest management decisions by family forestry representatives are among desired impacts of the project, as family forestry plays an important role in rural employment, economic development and landscape formation. Better ways for family forest owners to learn necessary skills and ideas is of great importance. Better understanding of balancing economic, environmental and social aspects of forestry is also expected to be accomplished. Well managed forest stores much more carbon, it is also expected to provide for increased employment opportunities. Well managed forests, based in informed decisions by owners, can significantly contribute to the above mentioned aspects country-wide, as well as Europe-wide.