Location:
Objective of the practice:
The aim of CORA is to bridge digital divide, improve public services delivery and create an environment stimulating digital innovation in rural areas.
Subtopics of the practice:
Digitalisation, digital infrastructures, smart skills, rural areas, public authorities
Geographical scope of the practice:
North Sea Region
Short summary of the practice:
CORA works to close the digital divide across rural areas that is limiting their attractiveness for families and businesses. CORA emphasizes the main components of digital divide, namely lack of digital infrastructure, services and skills.
Detailed information on the practice:
CORA’s aim is the creation of a digital ecosystem that is set to improve and empower rural areas to enhance the use of digital services towards improving the living and working qualities. In the project’s framework, this digital ecosystem is composed of digital transformation, namely digital infrastructure, digital services and digital skills and competences. This idea arises from the common challenge and needs in the region, that is characterised by a consistent number of rural areas. CORA concept comprises of three main steps namely identifying the common local challenges, testing solutions to overcome the challenges and streamlining and knowledge transfer. The main output, the CORA Model, has been developed comprising on guiding measures, good examples as well as selective training materials for the main target groups, namely local communities, authorities and enterprises in the aforementioned three main dimensions. The diversification of the actions of the project is what makes it both innovative and sustainable in the future. Among the three different dimensions, CORA targets the access to digital services through their availability and promotion. The infrastructure dimension revolves around the development of superfast broadband infrastructure and its quality. It includes an effort around technology, regulation and incentives, funding and finance. Digital skills are directed at a broad audience that goes beyond the main target groups.
Resources needed:
3.845.736€ from which 50% are co-financed by the Interreg North Sea Region Programme.
Results achieved:
The CORA partners developed the SSE (Systematic Synergy Enhancement) model to provide a comprehensive set of guiding measures towards digitalization in rural areas. Moreover, the digital hub guide concept was developed to gather knowledge on planning and operation of fixed and mobile digital hubs. Built on the idea of “train the trainer”, the CORA partners developed the conventional and online training concepts and materials. The project implemented some pilot actions upon which different policy briefings were elaborated.
Potential for learning:
The CORA project is interesting because it provides with a broad spectrum of actions that can be easily spread and replicable. CORA partners tested how their model can enhance digital skills. The results are utilised to formulate digital strategies for rural areas to be streamlined to the regional, national and European authorities and influence EU digital inclusion policy. The training courses, that are available for everyone, focus on introducing the benefits of high-capacity networks as well as financial and technical solutions for an effective and cost-efficient rollout of digital infrastructure in rural areas. Finally, the results and findings from research and pilot activities are integrated into a set of strategic recommendations to be communicated to the national and European decision-making authorities. The policy briefings, specifically, are fed into the EU directives and guidelines on digital divide and digital innovation in rural areas, and widely spread throughout the rural areas in the North Sea Region and Europe.
Further information:
https://northsearegion.eu/cora/
Keywords:
Rural areas, digitalisation, local authorities, infrastructures, policy
