The event agenda was set up as the following:

12:55 Connecting online.
13:00 Introduction: Prof. Dr. Willem Korthals Altes, professor in land development at TU Delft and member of the RURALIZATION executive board
13:10 Contributions from Alex Datema, Maria van Boxtel, Meino Smit, Jan Douwe van der Ploeg and Frits van der Schans followed by discussion
14:10 Break
14:30 Contributions from Maarten Koreman, Kees van Zelderen (could not attend), Klarien Klingen, Bettina Bock, Annelies Beyens followed by discussion
15:30 Break
15:45 Contributions from Sjoerd Wartena, Bregje Hamelynck, Eymert van Manen, Jan Spijkerboer, Henk Oostindie followed by discussion
16:45 Concluding remarks
17:00 End of session

Event description
The conference was described as overall very successful. The event was organised as a discussion meeting based on the theme, whether it is possible to breach the development that every new generation of farmers is half the size of the previous one. Is it possible to come to double as many farmers in 20 years? This was an opportunity to address the approach of RURALIZATION in providing new opportunities for new generations.

The challenge of rural population decline and need for rural communities to become more attractive places to live and work is a concern for rural people and policymakers alike. Trend analysis is a relevant activity to identify key drivers for rural regeneration.

The RURALIZATION H2020 projects is pleased to share the results of its extensive trend analysis in this first webinar “Trends affecting regeneration of rural areas in Europe”. The webinar will take place on February 25th 2021 and aims at further contributing to the long-term vision of rural areas promoted by the European Commission. The report produced by RURALIZATION on an extensive trend analysis exercise carried out in 2019–2020 will be presented together with the results of the SHERPA activities on the Long-term Vision of Rural Areas. The knowledge produced by both projects will serve as basis for a discussion among researchers, policy makers and practitioners.

This webinar is the first one of a series of webinars for policy makers, named ‘Sharing research insights for policy making’ and aimed at allowing policy makers to easily exploit project outcomes for forward-looking and knowledge based policies.

Click here to consult the event agenda and complete your registration here.

Introduction – Pascale Riccoboni, European Innovation Partnership Officer.

European stakes around the renewal of generations and policy solutions in upcoming  European programs – Alexia Rouby, Head of Research Programmes at the European Commission's AGRI Directorate General.

European innovations for access to land for a new generation of farmers: results of the H2020 RURALIZATION project - William Loveluck, RURALIZATION Research Officer at Terre de Liens.

Networking and disseminating European innovations for generational renewal through the H2020 NEWBIE project - Nils Maurice, Network Coordinator at RENETA and NEWBIE project.

An example of Integrated territorial approach to generational renewal in Centre-Val de Loire - Sandrine Clément, Director of Agriculture and Forestry, Regional Council of Centre-Val de Loire.

Workshop session

Workshop 1: Innovation transfer, replicability, and spin-off: under what conditions? Discussion with Laura Megias I Garriga from the Spanish Farm Incubator Network (RETA EIP Operational Group) and Sjoerd Wartena, co-founder of Terre de Liens and initiator of the European Access To Land network, about the practices of projects and networks to exchange, transfer and scale up innovations.

Workshop 2: Multi-stakeholder territorial approaches: why and how can we work together for generational renewal? Discussion with Elodie Patrice and Alix Bell from Semeurs du Possible of Possibilities - RARES EIP Operational Group and Nils Maurice from RENETA (experience of the Nid'Agri Operational Group) on collaborative approaches for the renewal of agricultural and rural generations: approaches, tools, and success or failures of cooperation.

Event description

The conference was organised online in partnership with the French National Rural Network (NRN) and European Innovation Partnership (EIP Agri). Terre de Liens, RURALIZATION and the NRN all communicated on the event about 2-3 weeks in advance. These combined communication forces succeeded in attracting a mixed public of policymakers, state and advisory services, as well as grassroots initiatives and rural development NGOs.
A video of the conference has been published on the website of Réseau Rural