dRural

Creating jobs and improving quality of life in European rural areas is the objective of the dRural project. This EU funded project will co-develop and roll out a digital marketplace of services for people living in rural communities. 31 partners from 9 countries have joined together to create an online marketplace that will offer services from local healthcare organizations, municipalities or professionals to the inhabitants of rural communities. dRural will help grow the economy, create jobs, foster local businesses and improve quality of life.

The service marketplace will be firstly launched in four EU rural regions: Extremadura (Spain), Jämtland Härjedalen (Sweden), Dubrovnik-Neretva County (Croatia) and Region Gelderland Midden (The Netherlands). The common digital platform will be adapted to the local language and needs of each of those regions. Then, services will be offered by local municipalities and health/social care public organizations as well as by private service providers (for example, teachers, therapists, farmers, etc.).

To ensure implementation, this will be supported by a number of actions to improve internet broadband coverage in the rural areas. dRural is expected to expand beyond these first four regions. In a second phase, the project will launch an open call for other rural communities – i.e. mirror regions – willing to implement the proposed digital marketplace of services. dRural has kicked off in January 2021 and will run until 2024.