Innovative Education for Sustainable Development in Peripheral Rural Areas

This paper aims to present the results of the Erasmus + RUR'UP project that developed educational tools for scientists, public managers, practitioners, and agricultural advisors living and working in peripheral rural areas. Based on the assessment of the educational needs and gaps for the sustainable development of the EU peripheral rural areas of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Finland, Ireland and France via a participatory innovation process, we have developed: an asynchronous e-learning course and supporting educational materials. The objective was to provide educational tools that will help the professional competencies of the Higher Education (HE) institutions working with peripheral rural regions by answering to the labour market and societal needs in these regions, thereby strengthening the collaboration between higher education and regional and cross-regional employers. The project resulted in 50 students who attended the e-learning course and the development of Open-Access educational materials with pedagogically sound activities associated with them, which can be used by any actor interested in the sustainable development of peripheral rural areas, especially those with high natural values in the form of a Virtual Bank of Case studies that gathers 14 examples of case studies.