Scaling Startup Villages: From Rural Experimentation to EU Policy
Rural Europe isn’t short of ideas. According to the Joint Research Centre’s first EU-wide survey of rural innovation, 64% of rural firms are innovative — not far behind the 70% recorded in urban areas. What they lack is continuity, connection, and policy that keeps pace with what’s already happening on the ground.
That was the central message of the closing Policy Dialogue of FoodCoP (funded by the European Union), “From Rural Innovation to European Policy: Scaling Startup Villages Across Europe”, held on 27 October 2026, just days before the project’s official end. Hosted by Luisa Marchionni, Senior Project Manager at SERN, the session presented the project’s new Policy Brief and put its recommendations to three voices from practice, funding and research: Dawid Półrolniczak (Swedish Palace, Grapice, Poland), Alberto Minguela (Climate KIC International Foundation), and Professor Damian Maye (University of Gloucestershire).
Locally Effective, Systemically Limited
Over two years, FoodCoP built a Community of Practice around rural Startup Villages such as Fundão (Portugal), Kočevje (Slovenia) and Killorglin (Ireland), engaging more than 270 stakeholders and running Climathons that produced around 20 early-stage ideas on food waste, local value chains and regenerative agriculture. Most, the Policy Brief finds, stalled at pilot stage — not for lack of merit, but for lack of follow-up support once short project cycles ended.
Three Levels, One Shift
The brief’s recommendations span EU, national and local governance: moving from project-based funding to ecosystem-based support at EU level; adapting instruments like CAP Strategic Plans, ERDF and LEADER to local realities at national level; and backing municipalities, local orchestrators and community-led governance on the ground. As the brief puts it, the gap isn’t a lack of instruments — it’s a lack of ways to connect, sequence and sustain the ones that already exist.
Three Asks for Policymakers
Each panellist closed with one priority. Maye asked policymakers to give pilots time to evolve rather than chasing the next trend. Minguela called for funding connection itself — the unglamorous work of linking actors and territories that project budgets rarely cover. Półrolniczak asked that policy keep people and communities at its centre.
FoodCoP formally closes on 31 October 2026. Its Policy Brief, infographic and the dialogue recording are available at foodcop.eu, and organisations interested in the Startup Village approach can join the project’s Community of Practice.
This Policy Dialogue was organised in the framework of FoodCoP, funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme under Grant Agreement 101182001.
