Researchers at University of Gloucestershire have secured 500,000 euros (£416,522) funding to improve knowledge exchange between rural businesses and communities in Europe.

The four-year project will look at how they can innovate, exploring new approaches to sourcing and analysing rural information and data.

The aim is to improve planning, while considering the opportunities and challenges of climate change, demographic shifts and digitalisation.

Professor Janet Dwyer, Dr Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins and PhD student Caitlin Hafferty from the Countryside and Community Research Institute based at the University, secured the funding from Horizon Europe. It is an EU research and innovation programme aimed at tackling climate change and helping to achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and boosts the EU's competitiveness and growth.

The University of Gloucestershire project is titled RUSTIK - Rural Sustainability Transitions through Integration of Knowledge for improved policy processes. It will complement the institute's research role in the National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE) in England.

Janet Dwyer, Professor of rural policy, said: "We are delighted to have secured funding from the Horizon Europe programme for RUSTIK to help support the research we are carrying out jointly with our partners in Europe.

"We will be working with Gloucestershire Rural Community Council and Torridge District Council in North West Devon as partners among a suite of 10 'Living Labs' across Europe, researching rural diversity and societal transformations.

"Our fieldwork in the UK will be linked to a network of other sites across Europe providing opportunities to experiment and share ideas, and generate lessons and recommendations for practice and for policy. This will help to improve access to better quality rural information for businesses and communities."

The full consortium involves 31 partners and is led by the Institute for Rural Development Research in Frankfurt, Germany.