ARIA 2024 spotlights projects that empower young people and women in rural areas

The theme of this year’s competition was “Empowering young people” as ARIA 2024 aimed to highlight the projects strengthening the empowerment of young people and women in rural areas. This edition spotlights projects considered as the greenest, smartest, most socially inclusive, innovative and resilient, co-funded by the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), at the local level.

The awards ceremony highlighted the six winners, five selected by a jury of the network's stakeholders and one chosen through an online Popular Vote.

The winners were announced as follows:

• Smart & Competitive Agriculture: Iris: the true scent of Tuscany, Italy
• Environmental Protection: Recycling Farm Plastics, Finland
• Socio-Economic Fabric of Rural Areas: The little conserve factory, France
• Rural Youth: Open farms, rural connections, Italy
• The Gender Equality Award: FRAU iDA – Space for women entrepreneurs, Austria
• The Popular Vote Award: Authentic honey meets DNA technology, Estonia

These awards celebrate the green, innovative, and inclusive CAP projects shaping rural Europe at a local level. I fully support this year’s ARIA focus on ‘Empowering young people,’ an issue I’ll champion throughout my mandate, starting with the upcoming Youth Policy Dialogue.

Christophe Hansen

Background

The Agricultural and Rural Inspiration Awards is an EU CAP Network competition aiming to highlight and reward inspirational projects co-funded through the CAP. This is the sixth edition of the competition and second organised under the new name (ARIA). The award was previously known as the Rural Inspiration Award (RIA) organised under the former European Network for Rural Development (ENRD), which is part of the EU CAP Network since October 2022.

For further details on the winning projects and the nominees from this year’s edition, please visit the ARIA 2024 webpage.