Research and innovation are essential tools for the sustainable development of mountain areas. Constrained by natural and geographical obstacles, mountain territories are veritable laboratories for inventing new solutions to tackle challenges such as climate change or the lack of public services. Euromontana therefore engages in research and innovation projects, advocates for further development of research and innovation in mountain areas and promotes networking between researchers.
Boosting research and innovation for mountain areas
Mountain areas have always successfully demonstrated their ability to innovate in response to the constraints they face. Certain growing challenges hinder mountains’ sustainable development and Euromontana thus calls for stronger efforts to boost innovation in these areas. Research and innovation policies must make room for mountain areas and support actions in, with and for local communities.
Euromontana brings these messages regularly to the attention of the European institutions and within the EU CAP network’s Permanent subgroup on Innovation and knowledge exchange.
We call for
- Increasing the number of calls for proposals on mountain areas, particularly within the Horizon Europe programme. New innovation action projects or thematic networks can help these areas innovate to tackle issues related to depopulation and marginalization, energy transition, cultural and natural heritage protection, social inclusion and territorial disparities, climate change mitigation and adaptation, local value chains development or farming ecosystems services in the face of climate change among others.
- Improving the dissemination and integration of research results into European, national, regional and local policies – including by ensuring that they are better taken into account by the European institutions.
- Emphasising the development of both technological and social innovations, which can provide new responses to mountains’ challenges, mobilise communities and promote cohesion.
- Strengthening discussions on the challenges faced by mountain farmers within the EU CAP Network.
A Network for European Mountain Research
Cooperation between researchers from different European mountain massifs is essential to ensure a better understanding of mountain-related challenges and the effective development of innovative solutions. For this reason, Euromontana supported the adoption of the Strategic Research Agenda “Mountains for Europe’s Future” in 2016 and the creation of the Network for European Mountain Research in 2017. NEMOR is based on concerted collaboration between researchers from different disciplines and European countries and serves as a link from European to global mountain issues in support of the vision of the Mountain Research Initiative.
