European digital nomads (EDIN)
https://www.interregeurope.eu/edin
Project consortium:
- Atlantic Axis of Peninsular Northwest, Spain (Lead partner)
- Union of Bulgarian Black Sea Local Authorities (Bulgaria)
- Agency for the development of the Empolese Valdelsa (Italy)
- Donegal County Council (Ireland)
- Møre and Romsdal County Council (Norway)
- Regional Government of Tuscany (Italy)
- ELY Centre Kainuu (Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (Finland)
- Lazdijai district municipality administration (Lithuania)
Funded: INTERREG EUROPE / Policy objective 4: More social Europe / Specific objective: Culture and sustainable tourism
Budget: 1,980,625.00 EUR
Duration: 36 months
Background of the project
Digital nomads (DN) are skilled professionals of high added value sectors who can work digitally from anywhere. They usually seek places suitable to their lifestyles, with good internet connections, quality of life, affordable prices, a well-preserved natural environment and access to local culture. Digital Nomads (DNs) are a growing reality in European regions. They can be a catalyst for sustainable development of territories, as they create economic activity, bring new people to the territories, and represent a new type of tourism. EDIN partners cover 7 different regions in Europe with different contexts and one common need: the improvement of their policy instruments to attract DN in an effective way and in view of the sustainable development of the territories. Partners have different levels of experience in addressing the DN phenomenon for the benefit of the territory, but all partners wish to learn from each other and bring the European perspective to the policies already in place.
The project aims: at promoting DNs as desirable figures for territorial development, establishing the objective of increasing their presence by 30% in each of the partner territories by 2028, thanks to the changes applied to the selected policy instruments.
This overall objective will be enabled by improving the relevant policy instruments in each territory, which will lead to benefit from the advantages that DNs bring to the territories, to enhance the local economy, create new activities and promote new ways of enjoy these places as tourist destinations. At the same time, the improved policy instruments will better serve the needs of DNs and will attract them to the regions. Exchange and mutual learning will allow the more advanced partners to further develop their policy tools. For those less advanced, exchange and learning will inspire new actions & visions, leading to the improvement of existing policy tools.
Target groups:
- Local Administrations and оther public administrations in the territory
- SMEs and businesses, related to services for digital nomads
- Civil society, especially community organisations, NGOs-Cultural sector, which includes a variety of actors: individual creators, the handicraft sector, cultural centres…
- Touristic sector (public and private)
- Local citizens-Digital nomads
EDIN will work at interregional and local levels, in order to enrich as maximum as possible partners’ experience and the benefits for the territories involved. In this sense, the learning process will be organized in 2 steps:
Step 1. Analysis and exchange of experience.
Regional reports (RR) and the interregional report (IR) will be elaborated, and will underpin all learning and exchange activities implemented in the project. Each partner will produce a RR on the state of play of digitalization and digital nomads in its region, identifying challenges and good practices potentially transferrable to other territories. On the basis of lessons learnt from RR and IR production, combined with the Study visits results and attendance to the thematic workshops, experts and partners will produce a Roadmap with recommendations about how to improve its Policy Instrument. The Roadmaps will be elaborated and fine-tuned as the exchange of experience takes place and conclusions are drawn from the study visits.
Step 2. Transfer to policy instruments. Local meetings with the policy instrument responsible will be organised to discuss and approve the roadmaps. On the basis of the roadmaps, local training activities within the partner organisations and stakeholders group will be organised to transfer the recommendations. Possible local actions to implement the changes indicated in the roadmap will also be identified. Local communication activities will be organised for awareness raising among the local communities, as they are a condition for the successful implementation of local policies. This step will be mainly local and is intended to provide organisational learning to the partner, associated partner and stakeholder organisations.
In general, EDIN will help regions attract talent to their territories via digital nomads. These highly qualified professionals will contribute to the local economy and cultural enrichment: They are usually environmentally concerned persons. In fact, one of the main drivers for digital nomads to select a destination is the quality of life and a well-protected natural environment in the territories, especially rural ones. In this context, EDIN will support local actions that engage digital nomads in the nature protection of the territories.
Find us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/showcase/edin-european-digital-nomads/