Networking is a significant pillar of the RURITAGE communication and outreach campaign. RURITAGE networking activities target projects and initiatives operating at European level which, to various extent and through different perspectives, focus their work on rural regeneration in the context on cultural and natural heritage. The networking primarily aims at sharing RURITAGE results and spreading information about recent achievements of the project in order to foster the adoption of RURITAGE approach among actors interested in using heritage to regenerate rural areas. Moreover, through networking, RURITAGE seeks to be regularly informed about accomplishments of other projects and initiatives, with a view to complement the knowledge already gathered by the RURITAGE consortium and to feed the ongoing project activities. Finally, networking is also a mean to explore opportunities for developing common activities of mutual interest, and thus joining forces to promote and reinforce heritage-led rural regeneration.

RURITAGE networking approach is based on maintaining regular contact with relevant projects and initiatives, exchanging information about recent achievements (also by using social media), participating to each other events (also as speakers/presenters), organizing common activities and events,developing common results and promoting research advancements.

RURITAGE has been actively involved in networking since the beginning of the project, i.e. since June 2018. The networking team regularly performs mapping of relevant projects and initiatives to ensure that all new opportunities are timely addressed, while we are also open for cooperation prospects coming from third parties. Currently, RURITAGE cooperates with approximately 50 projects and initiatives, and this number is constantly increasing. Those with whom collaboration is particularly close, i.e. those where common activities have been planned or developed, are presented below. While all those projects are related to the topic of heritage-led rural regeneration, they tackle this issue from various perspectives, e.g. looking at urban-rural synergies (ROCK, ROBUST), investment and business approaches (CLIC), heritage asset management (OPEN HERITAGE), sharing heritage-related stories and participatory approached (PLUGGY, REACH) and heritage-led innovation and diplomacy (ILUCIDARE). This mixed approach ensures that, on the one hand, RURITAGE results are developed using multidisciplinary and versatile expertise, on the other hand, other projects can benefit from RURITAGE knowledge and achievements.

If you are interested to collaborate with RURITAGE, please write to our networking team at progettoruritage@apre.it.