RURITAGE - Rural regeneration through systemic heritage-led strategies

A project investigating the cultural and natural heritage of European rural areas
Map of the areas involved with the RURITAGE project

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 776465.

The cultural and natural heritage of European rural areas

Rural areas across Europe have a rich cultural and natural heritage which not only needs to be preserved but also can be a driver for regional competitiveness and sustainable and inclusive economic growth. The RURITAGE project aims to support this by developing a new way of thinking about how natural and cultural heritage factors might support rural regeneration.

Under the H2020 call ‘Cultural heritage as a driver for sustainable growth’ (SC5-21-2016-2017), coordinated by Bologna University, the 10M Euro Ruritage project brings together 40 R & D partners, from Italy, Spain, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, Norway, Poland, Netherlands, Colombia, Hungary, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Romania, Austria, Brazil, Turkey and Chile.

Find out more

Information on the University of Plymouth's involvement with the project can be found below. If you want to know more or want to get involved with the project, please contact Lynda Rodwell

Within this broad network, the project’s activities are distributed across a series of test sites - Rural Heritage Hubs - in which local stakeholders will work with academic researchers and business professionals to co-create and implement heritage-led regeneration strategies in the following research themes:

  • pilgrimages
  • sustainable local food production
  • migration
  • art and festivals
  • resilience
  • integrated land management

Ruritage theme diagram

University of Plymouth's involvement

Researchers from the University of Plymouth’s Sustainable Earth Institute will integrate expertise of ecosystem services economics (Lynda Rodwell), environmental psychology (Sabine Pahl) and landscape characterisation and evaluation (John Martin) in developing qualitative and quantitative indices and methodologies for evaluating heritage-led regeneration. The idea is that Plymouth will work will multiple partners in multiple areas, drawing together a common approach to evaluating the regenerative potential of the principal research themes. The Plymouth team will also contribute to the data management of the project and the co-creation of a mobile app for landscape characterisation (John Martin), as well as being closely involved in the broader communication of the results to multiple stakeholders (Iain Stewart).

Kick-off meeting of the RURITAGE project
Kick-off meeting of the RURITAGE project

University of Plymouth project team