SIMRA is a European funded project on Social Innovation in Marginalized Rural Areas. 

Social innovation (SI) has rapidly expanded in the research and policy debate as it aims to address urgent societal challenges and increase human wellbeing, responding to social demands that markets or existing institutions do not traditionally address. By the creation of re-configured social arrangements or networks between diverse actors, SI can introduce new solutions to challenges faced by rural areas that can re-invent their role and their capacity to innovate

SIMRA main aim is to better understand the driving forces and the enabling environment of social innovation (SI) and innovative governance in agriculture, forestry and rural development, and how to boost them, in marginalized rural areas (MRA) across Europe and around the Mediterranean, including non-EU countries.

This objective will be achieved by developing: a novel theoretical framework to define and understand SI in MRA, identifying key factors of SI development trajectories; an evaluative toolkit able to assess social innovation and its impacts in selected case studies across the target region. Furthermore, the project will develop improved knowledge of determinants of success in order to answer the question of how to support enhanced governance and SIs, addressing specificities and priorities of social needs and new social relationships and collaborations.

Link to SIMRA website