Social Innovation and the Economics of Rural regions and agriculture

Bioeconomy has been part of the broader international agenda and policy discussions for a relatively short time. The EU Horizon programme presents a tool to boost European research and innovation in the field of bioeconomy in 2014-2020. The bioeconomy opens up significant regional and local business opportunities. Rural development remains at the focus of European regional policy. Farming and forestry remain crucial for land use and the management of natural resources in the EU's rural areas, and as a platform for economic diversification in rural communities. The EU's rural development policy aims to meet the challenges faced by rural areas, and unlocking their potential. Recent rural research has also been very prone in raising questions about the adequacy of existing policy schemes in supporting the future evolution in rural economies, especially in the light of the development challenges they will face in the future and the opportunities they may be able to grasp. Rural Development policies appear to be in a transition phase, balancing between a traditional support to specific sectors of economic activity represented by strong sectoral policies at both EU and national levels, and a more recent territorial approach that seeks to bring into coherence local coalitions of actors. Social innovations are new ideas (products, services and models) that simultaneously meet social needs. Our hypothesis is that Social Innovation being a new and fundamental component of regional systems of innovation is forming a base for new and dynamic interactions between the key assets of rural development. In the discourse about bioeconomy and regional development it is known that differences in territorial capital, policy and external factors will influence the outcome of regions. Including Social Innovation as a component in both territorial capital and in Regional Innovation Systems will allow us to understand how this aspect will affect these processes.