The UVic-UCC chair for the Rural World will promote sustainable development and territorial balance in the rural world

Promoting global and sustainable development of rural territories, fighting against depopulation and the territorial imbalance in the country, and fostering dynamics of collaboration with the agents in the rural territories. Those are the three main goals that the Chair for the Rural World of the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC). The project for the Chair was presented on Saturday 3 July, in the auditorium of the Lluçanès Consortium in Santa Creu de Jutglar (Olost), as part of the first Rural Innovation Seminar. The six institutions organising the chair are UVic-UCC; the Ministry of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda of the Government of Catalonia; Creacció, the Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Knowledge Agency; the Lluçanès Consortium; the Association of Rural Initiatives of Catalonia (ARCA) and the Nature Conservation Network (XCN).

After it has been formally established, the Chair for the Rural World will be a forum for research, knowledge and support for innovation in rural areas. The project was established with the aim of listening, relating and helping to structure all the initiatives that are working towards the future of Catalonia's rural world, fostering collaboration between researchers and professionals and people in the rural area. 

The project for the Chair for the Rural World was presented and Rural Innovation seminar was opened by the Minister for Climate Action, Food and the Rural Agenda of the Government of Catalonia, Teresa Jordà; the rector of UVic-UCC, Josep Eladi Baños; the president of the Lluçanès Consortium, Marc Sucarrats, and the director of the project for the Chair, Alfred Vernis.

Consensus and territorial cohesion as priorities

The Minister Teresa Jordà thanked and congratulated those responsible for the project, which she described as "extremely important for the ministry and the country's government," and she said "we share a mission" with the project's founders. She said that "we must work together to contribute to the sustainable and comprehensive development of our country's rural areas and to generate knowledge in this area," and said that in this context, "the academic knowledge provided by UVic-UCC, which has its roots in the territory and its perspective towards Europe, is crucial."

Jordà also said that territorial cohesion is one of her ministry's priorities. "The policies promoted by the government must always be formulated based on the territory, in a thoughtful and consensual manner, with a holistic perspective and thinking of the country in terms of all its diversity and in its entirety, if we want to be able to implement them successfully." On this point, she said that the chair for the Rural World takes on its full meaning because "it works for the balanced development and competitiveness of rural areas."

UVic-UCC's commitment to the territory

Afterwards, the rector of UVic-UCC explained that the chair "is not an end in itself, but rather an instrument, considered as a space for research, knowledge and support for direct innovation in the rural territories that structure the initiatives that are working to regenerate these areas, finding the ideal solutions which simultaneously respect both people and the environment."

The rector also recalled "UVic-UCC's commitment to the territory, to which it brings the added value of research and knowledge" and highlighted the need to "make the agricultural world valued for what it is worth and for what it can offer, which can be a great deal, and very high quality, in view of the fact that it preserves a system of life, of sustainability and of the landscape," among other factors. Addressing the Minister Jordà, he said that "although the University's primary role is not to change the country, we do want to contribute to making this possible by working with the Government." 

The president of the Lluçanès Consortium said that "the Chair for the Rural World is a great opportunity for working based on knowledge of all the urgent challenges we face, and for highlighting the opportunities that arise from it." He also said that one of its objectives is to "show that the rural world is alive," and that it must therefore develop towards becoming specific initiatives and actions that benefit the territory and the people who live there.

Projects already under way and Rural Innovation Awards

"This research space not only aims to contribute to the debates and initiatives that are emerging all over the country, but also aims to be actively involved, working directly in Catalonia's various rural areas, starting with the Lluçanès region," said Alfred Vernis, the coordinator of the project for the Chair for the Rural World. He said that "we must forget the idyllic and traditional vision of the rural world, which is becoming less and less isolated from the rest of the country and more connected to it," in order to foster a debate which identifies the various rural scenarios, and creates mechanisms for transfer and innovation in a flexible, broad-based and holistic way.

During the seminar, the institutions responsible for the Chair for the Rural World, led by Judith Saus and Ariadna Tremoleda, members of the team behind the Chair, presented the objectives set and discussed the situation in the projects already under way. These include mapping inspiring rural projects, the Catalan Rural Agenda, and the Earth-Table Co-creation Group. Afterwards, the Experiences Groups of the Rural Innovation Technical Seminar began. 

Rural Innovation Awards

The morning also saw the presentation of the Rural Innovation Awards, which were organised for the first time and sponsored by the Caixa d'Enginyers Foundation, and fall into two categories. First, the prize for an innovative initiative of a young person or people from the rural world, aimed at people under 35 years old and worth 5,000 Euros. This prize was won by the Cantilafont Festival's Brots project. Another prize, also worth 5,000 Euros, for an innovative initiative by a woman from the rural world, was awarded to the La Roca de Sobremunt project, which is a natural gastronomic cooperative.

A total of 11 initiatives were candidates for the prizes. The jury, which was made up of Xavier Barniol, technical director of the Lluçanès Consortium; Núria Macià, executive director of Creacció; Jordi Collet, Vice-Rector for Research and Knowledge Transfer at UVic-UCC; and Fermí Cuasante, a member of Acció Solidària Contra l’Atur, took into account their ability to have a mirror effect on other initiatives, their positive social and ecological impact on the territory, the ability to create jobs and their networking. The awards ceremony was attended by Miquel Vila i Despujol, vice-president of the Acció Solidària Contra l’Atur Foundation, and the Minister Teresa Jordà. 

The origins of the Chair

The Chair for the Rural World began to take shape in January 2019, when the then president of the Lluçanès Consortium and mayor of Prats de Lluçanès, Isaac Peraire, brought together around thirty organisations to talk about the possibility of creating a chair. UVic-UCC joined the project a year later, in January 2020, and the decision was taken that after it was established, the chair would initially focus on the Lluçanès region, and it would extend to cover Catalonia's other rural regions after the first two years.

"The project for this chair was established with the aim of listening, relating and helping to structure all the initiatives that are working towards an environmentally friendly future from a perspective that is rural, innovative, sustainable, feminist, social and based on solidarity, and are projects that regenerate the territory," adds Vernis. The institutions behind the chair are now working on preparing the Rural Agenda of Catalonia and on Spain's Rural Proofing Guarantee Mechanism. They are also collaborating in various working groups on depopulation, development and growth in rural areas, on land regeneration with Greenpeace, and working with the Ruralization and Ecoregion European projects.

This will be the fourteenth chair created at UVic-UCC, and it will be based at the University. Alfred Vernis will be the coordinator of the project for the chair, and Ariadna Tremoleda, Judith Saus and Rosa Binimelis will be its specialist personnel. The chair will join the University's other two chairs working in the rural sphere: the chairs in Water, Nature and Welfare and in Agroecology and Food Systems.