Developing INnovative Alliances for Management, Innovation, and Collaboration in European BioEconomy

Duration: From 1 April 2025 to 30 September 2027

Project Title: Developing Innovative Alliances for Management, Innovation, and Collaboration in European BioEconomy

Project acronym: DINAMIC DANUBE

Project Coordinator: RIT Croatia

Type of project/programme: Interreg Danube Region Programme

Total project value: EUR 2.396.949,99

Project value for Rudolfovo: 245.000,00 EUR

Project Manager at Rudolfovo: prof. dr. Borut Rončević (borut.roncevic@rudolfovo.eu)prof. dr. Borut Rončević (borut.roncevic@rudolfovo.eu)

Brief description of the project:

The DINAMIC DANUBE project is a strategic partnership of 17 organisations combining academic expertise and business support capacities to jointly address the complex socio-economic challenges of rural areas in the Danube Region. The main objective is to mitigate the depopulation trend that threatens the economic backbone of the region - small family farms, which are the main target group of this project. This will be achieved by strengthening their capacities through lifelong learning, mentoring and technology deployment.

The contemporary challenges of small family farms, particularly in the south-eastern part of the Danube region, require targeted measures to increase their sustainability, competitiveness and resilience. Key constraints such as out-migration of skilled labour, ageing population, lack of modern technologies and weak business support ecosystems are addressed by the DINAMIC DANUBE project through an integrated approach combining education, technology integration and capacity building, with a particular focus on women's empowerment in agriculture. This methodology not only strengthens local economies but also contributes to the overall sustainable development of the region.

The project will directly involve 500 small family farms from the Danube Region, providing them with lifelong learning, peer mentoring programmes and the introduction of innovative technologies in less developed and marginalised areas. In addition, a strong Danube network will be established in the bioeconomy and precision agriculture sectors, bringing together key stakeholders. They will be responsible for disseminating the results of the project to other supporting institutions, thus enabling the project to reach a wider base of family farms in the programme area.

The findings of the project will be proposed as policy recommendations to national institutions, which will thus be able to monitor the tangible results of the implemented solutions. The consortium plans to continue its efforts by further developing joint studies and action plans to enable the development of future initiatives over the next four years.

The key specific objectives of the project include:

• SO1: Capacity building and skills upgrading - development of new curricula and field trainings to increase the knowledge of family farmers. This will support their production and distribution in the long term and contribute to programme outcomes such as cross-border cooperation between organisations, the development of joint strategies and action plans, and the promotion of gender equality and social inclusion.

• SO2: Fostering innovation and partnerships - the project will introduce affordable and easy-to-use digital technologies to small family farms, enabling a transition to a new era of farming, increased productivity and support for biodiversity and the bio-economy in South-East European countries. Knowledge transfer from developed neighbouring countries such as Austria and Germany will contribute to the development of appropriate curricula and the transfer of precision farming experience. This will open up opportunities to address structural problems such as migration, boosting the agricultural economy and preserving diversity.

• SO3: Improving stakeholder cooperation and networking - Activities such as study visits, comparative events and policy dialogues will contribute to changes in existing policies and to improving the educational frameworks of the countries. The project will promote cross-border cooperation between organisations and actively advocate policy reforms to improve existing regulatory frameworks.

  
  

The DINAMIC DANUBE project will deliver three key results:

1. Joint strategies and action plans adopted.

2. Organisations with improved institutional capacities as a result of participation in cross-border activities.

3. Solutions put in place that will contribute to the sustainable development of agriculture in the Danube region.