Giving Rural Actors Novel data and re-Useable tools to Lead public Action in Rural areas (GRANULAR)

Representing 30% of its population and over 80% of its territory, EU rural areas are facing simultaneous demographic, climate, economic, social and environmental changes which affect their characteristics and metabolisms. Responding to these challenges requires a precise understanding of what rural areas are and what rural communities are facing nowadays. Definitions of rural areas tend to lean on population density or size. They do not provide sufficient insights into the dynamics, drivers and fluidity of contemporary diverse rural-urban relations and identities that characterize ruralities across Europe. Despite the increasing acknowledgement that rural areas are diverse and that typologies should better reflect the identities of such territories, the lack of data at a fine scale prevents such innovations. Departing from an updated conceptualisation of rurality based on the multi-dimensional nature of contemporary rural-urban interrelations and interdependencies, GRANULAR will generate new insights for characterising rural diversity based on a multi-actor and interdisciplinary approach. Based on insights from Multi-Actor Labs, it will generate novel datasets using a wide range of methods and primary data, such as remote sensing, crowd-sourced data, mobile phone data and web-scraping. This data will then be combined with a variety of existing institutional data to derive indicators relevant to rural communities for the implementation of the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas (LTVRA), so to measure resilience, well-being, quality of life and attractiveness. This will enable GRANULAR to create a Rural Compass, that take into account the factors affecting rural communities and their functional characteristics, informing policymakers and rural actors for the design of tailored rural policies. After ensuring the up-scalability of the results, datasets, data visualization and other tools will be directly available on a dedicated platform designed by and for rural actors.