SIMRA (Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas) is a four-year project (2016-2020) funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme. It aims to advance understanding of social innovation and innovative governance in agriculture, forestry and rural development – and how to boost them – in marginalised rural areas across Europe and around the Mediterranean, including non-EU countries. The overall concept underpinning SIMRA is to better understand the role of social innovation in building territorial capital and enhancing sustainable development through application of a systematic theoretical and operational framework of social innovation and governance in rural areas.

Furthermore, SIMRA will be active in the social media and in other interactive digital platforms in order to promote the exchange, discussion and information sharing, with external audiences, and in particular with the different types of stakeholders in different countries. These platforms will be used to transfer methodologies and good practice of social innovation to other marginalised rural areas.