RootRural hosted “Connecting Rural Ideas Across Europe,” a 2-hour international virtual meeting bringing together entrepreneurs, experts and rural networks from across the continent.
Why this meeting matters
RootRural (Raízes e Horizontes / Raíces y Horizontes), an Erasmus+ project (KA210-ADU) led by Rural Move (Portugal) and Tierras Sorianas del Cid (Spain) has always looked beyond its own two territories. Since the start of the project, our international networking strategy has mapped reference territories, European networks and experts working on rural regeneration, entrepreneurship and social innovation. Today’s session was where that mapping came to life: a space to share what we’ve learned so far, and to open a real conversation about the challenges and opportunities rural communities face across Europe.
Who joined us
More than 20 people took part, from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands and Greece, including several of our own RootRural entrepreneurs and team members, alongside experts and practitioners from partner networks.
What we talked about
The conversation moved quickly from shared challenges to shared ideas. Among the challenges raised: the loneliness that often comes with remote and rural work, the growing difficulty of finding housing in areas that are attracting new residents, the funding and branding struggles of small rural entrepreneurs, and the wider structural issues of depopulation and brain drain that keep resurfacing across very different territories.
But the energy in the room was mostly about solutions. Ideas included rethinking what a rural coworking hub can be for smaller communities, reviving local exchange systems as an alternative to purely monetary economies, using virtual mentoring to fight isolation, connecting digital nomad communities with rural areas that need new residents, and tapping into opportunities like the New European Bauhaus to reuse empty rural buildings. Several participants also pointed to a simple but powerful idea: sharing resources and knowledge across several small projects instead of each one struggling alone.
Building new bridges
The meeting also became a space to connect RootRural with other international networks working on similar ground: CAP, Rural Activators (Erasmus+ project), the European Rural Coworking Project, Digital Nomads Portugal, and Rural Radicals. Sharing ideas across these networks was one of the clearest outcomes of the session, and a reminder that no single project can tackle rural revitalisation alone.
What’s next
As RootRural moves towards its final stretch, one question kept coming back: how do we keep this momentum going beyond the life of one Erasmus+ project? The group agreed to keep the conversation alive, with a follow-up meeting and a first draft proposal already taking shape for future European cooperation.
The ambition is clear: scale what we’ve built together to more countries and more communities.
A big thank you to everyone who joined …. this is only the beginning of the conversation.
Roots and Horizons: Cultivating a Culture of Opportunities in the Territory
Funded by: European Union through the Erasmus+ (2025-1-ES01-KA210-ADU-000353379),in collaboration with the Spanish National Agency SEPIE.
The “ROOT RURAL” project is co-funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors, Asociación Tierras Sorianas del Cid and Rural Move, and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Spanish Service for the Internationalization of Education (SEPIE). Neither the European Union nor the SEPIE National Agency can be held responsible for them.
