RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

The Rural Policy Committee plans and prepares national research and development projects that are significant as regards the rural policy.

The project activity comprises the design of the projects, negotiations, follow-up, analysis of the results and communication.

The Rural Policy Committee has a projects group, which prepares the projects as well as maintains contacts to the projects, groups of rural actors in the regions and several funds.

The project group has representatives from five administrative sectors. It prepares recommendations concerning the funding of projects to the Ministry of Employment and the Economy. The theme groups design and evaluate the projects concerning their own specific topics.

The criteria for funding the projects highlight the search, testing or further development of new methodologies. It is important that the methodology can be applied widely in rural development work after the project funding has ended. The projects cannot be used to provide financial support for the regular activities of a company, organisation, industry or region, even if the operations were concerned with rural development.

In the development and evaluation of the projects special attention is directed to the preparedness, innovativeness, willingness to operative expansion and ability to implement national and EU regional development projects.