Past Projects

Ruraltech , INTERREG 111 B Atlantic Area

European network Promotion of the New Technologies in the Rural Areas

The project Ruraltech attempted to reduce the “digital divide” that affects the rural areas of Cantabria and the Rioja (Spain), Castelo Branco (Portugal) Mid-West region (Ireland) and rural Wales and aims to achieve the following objectives:

• Evaluate and propose feasible technological solutions for the implantation of technological infrastructure in the countryside.
• Research the present and potential demand of NICTs in the partners’ rural areas.
• Promoting the demand and supply of the new technologies through the dissemination of their uses and through the demonstration of pilot actions as well as training.
• Evaluate and share at once the project results between the participating organizations.
• Transfer the project results to the regional and local public administrations, to the economic agents and to citizens in general.

To fulfil these objectives the following actions will be undertaken:

• To make technical proposals to improve access to communication networks in the rural areas.
• To analyse barriers of access to NICT in the countryside addressing in particular the difficulties encountered by women in relation to benefiting of ICTs.
• To measure the penetration at the beginning and at the end of the project of the use of NICT in the zones which have taken part in the project.
• To analyse the concept of One Stop Shop implemented in Ireland to examine a. its physical extension b. the practical development in relation to the improvement in the coordination of the supplied services and to ameliorate the access to the services for all (affecting equally men and women of those rural areas)
• To evaluate the environmental usefulness of the NICTs for environmental management and risks in the countryside.

The project promoted the use of the NICT by :

• Demonstrating the advantages offered by accesing ICTs. These actions will include conferences, congresses, public demonstrations and specific documentation generated for the promotion of the project and the use of the NICT.
• Training actions directed to citizens in the countryside will concentrate on the training of women and measure the impact in the realisation of the equality of opportunities.
• Pilot actions for the experimentation of the One Stop Shop to promote and spread the use of ICT between the citizens.
• The elaboration of resources guides online, project website and CD-Rom material for the dissemination of the project.

The project, established means of evaluating and transferring the results between the partners to ensure a permanent update of the progress of the project, the acquisition of good practices and if necessary the undertaking of corrective actions if the results are not the as good as expected. The evaluation mechanism will allow the pursuit of the fulfilment of the established indicators.

The project , transferred the project results of the project to the regional and local public administrations. Initially this transfer of results will be possible by the presence in the project of Public Organizations but it is expected that the results will have an ample repercussion and importance, beyond the limits of the geographic scope of the project and can ultimately be applied to other territories or by other administrations.

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