Make Creative Villages - Initiate Cooperation between CCI and Villages

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Actors in rural areas often lack innovation competences and the methods to initiate cooperation with innovative enterprises. Thus, companies from the creative industries have only occasionally been seen as a potential cooperation partner for villages to develop their manifold local cultural resources and to find innovative ideas to preserve the attractiveness of the region. Creative industry in rural areas is an untapped potential in Central Europe. Developing the creative sector in rural areas has the potential to generate sustainable and quality enterprises as well as employment opportunities and contribute to rural diversification. This is where the project Mac Village starts. The main objective of the project is to develop an easy-to-apply methodology in an iterative process for the local and regional level to initiate innovations in cooperation with CCI enterprises. Basis is the Frugal Innovation concept which responds to limitations in resources, which are also found in rural areas. A range of innovation methods will be tested in three villages per partner region and further developed. The methods are easy to use and promote a rapid and joint development of competence and innovative networking. The project brings together people from different fields (local authorities and stakeholders, regions, business development agencies and organisations with specific competence in CCI and social entrepreneurship) and gathers them in a multi-level dialogue. The project will implement 54 innovation workshops in six regions in DE, AT, IT, SI and HU promoting the cooperation among local actors and CCI. More than 200 stakeholders will be trained to enable them to implement the innovation methods developed in the project. By doing so local actors in the villages will be able to create favorable local conditions for CCI and innovative networks for new products and services exploiting their cultural resources and develop new businesses.

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