Partners of the Interreg Sudoe RuralSilverHubS project recently gathered in Limoges for a consortium meeting focused on advancing the implementation of this European initiative aimed at addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing rural territories in South-West Europe.
Across the SUDOE area, rural communities are increasingly affected by population ageing, depopulation, and limited access to essential services. RuralSilverHubS responds to these challenges by placing the silver population—people aged 55 and over—at the centre of innovative solutions that foster social cohesion, economic development and territorial resilience.
Co-creation workshops at the core of the meeting
The consortium meeting was designed as a highly participatory and practical working session, with a strong emphasis on co-creation workshops involving project partners and local stakeholders. Rather than traditional presentations, the agenda focused on collaborative work to jointly design and refine the project’s next implementation phases.
During the workshops, partners shared the current status of their pilot territories and local stakeholder groups, exchanging insights on progress made and identifying common barriers and challenges to the deployment of RuralSilverHubS actions. Additional sessions explored the transition from existing knowledge and good practices to Living Lab methodologies, analysing the transfer potential of innovative approaches and identifying priority domains for rural silver services.
The meeting also served to collectively develop the methodological framework, roadmap and strategic orientation of the Rural Silver Labs, ensuring a coherent and coordinated approach across all participating territories while respecting local specificities.
Strengthening European cooperation for rural transformation
The Limoges meeting highlighted the added value of transnational cooperation, a core principle of the Interreg Sudoe Programme. By bringing together public authorities, innovation clusters, research organisations and civil society actors from Spain, France and Portugal, RuralSilverHubS fosters a shared learning environment that supports the development of scalable and replicable solutions for rural areas across Europe.
Finnova’s role and commitment
As a project partner, Fundación Finnova contributes its expertise in European programmes, innovation ecosystems and multi-stakeholder collaboration. Finnova’s participation in RuralSilverHubS reflects its broader commitment to promoting social innovation, sustainability and European cooperation, in line with the values and objectives of the European Union.
About RuralSilverHubS
RuralSilverHubS is a European cooperation project co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg Sudoe Programme. With a total budget of approximately €1.3 million and a duration of 30 months (2025–2027), the project brings together a consortium of nine partners from Spain, France and Portugal: the Diputació de Tarragona (Spain), acting as lead partner; the Sociedad para el Desarrollo de la Provincia de Burgos – SODEBUR (Spain); the University of Vigo (Spain); Fundación Finnova (Spain); the Gérontopôle Nouvelle-Aquitaine (France); SilverOcc Clusterlab (France); the Algarve Intermunicipal Community – AMAL (Portugal); the Intermunicipal Community of Ave (Portugal); and the Portuguese Red Cross (Portugal).
The project aims to improve the quality of life of older people in rural areas by promoting innovative services, strengthening the silver economy and fostering social innovation ecosystems that contribute to more inclusive, resilient and sustainable rural communities across the SUDOE area.