The European project SIMRA (Social Innovation in Marginalized Rural Areas) is organising a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) on social innovation in rural areas which will start next Monday 30 March. The course will last for three weeks and can be followed on the global platform FutureLearn, where users can find a broad range of online courses offered by renowned institutions from around the world.
This virtual course, which can be followed for free, aims to teach about social innovation, the challenges currently facing rural areas and how best to support innovation efforts to boost these areas. Participants of the course will have the opportunity to discover the tools and success cases where social innovation has been useful to improve disadvantaged rural conditions. Using global case studies, participants will analyse new approaches proposed by 26 partners involved in the SIMRA research project.
Who is the course for?
The course is designed for anyone interested in innovation in rural development. This may include decision makers, public, private and third sector development agents, evaluators, facilitators, technical advisors, researchers or students involved in social innovation projects in rural areas.
This course has been developed by the University of Padova and IAMZ-CEHAM in collaboration with other partners in the SIMRA project consortium such as the James Hutton Institute, Perth College, Agricultural Economics Research Institute in Wageningen, European Forest Institute’s Mediterranean Facility, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences BOKU and Seeds Int.
About SIMRA
Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas (SIMRA) seeks to advance understanding of social innovation and innovative governance in agriculture, forestry and rural development in marginalised rural areas. The project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 677622.
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