Horizon 2020 DESIRA - Digitisation: Economic and Social Impacts in Rural Areas

Kokkola University Consortium Chydenius was part of the European Horizon 2020 DESIRA project, which studied the impacts of digitalization in rural areas. In the university consortium's portion, in addition to digitalization, the overarching theme was the circular economy.

Table of contents

Project duration
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Core fields of research
Kokkola University Consortium Chydenius
Research areas
Business Studies
Funding
European Union

Project description

Building smart environments in rural areas is already commonplace. For example, milking robots are standard on farms. In the future, smart systems will become even more widespread in rural areas, such as intelligent farm management, which can be controlled remotely from the city, or applications for harvesting vegetables and berries, such as monitoring ripeness levels.

Digitalization improves the quality of life in rural areas, and perhaps for this reason, it has not faced significant resistance to change. The project's benefits are undeniable: for example, large forest fires or floods can be predicted and prevented, or timber production in forests can be optimized by identifying and monitoring individual trees. The origin of products can be traced seamlessly - for instance, one can trace the exact forest plot from which the wood for a chair was sourced.

In the DESIRA project, 20 living labs were established across Europe. In the "lab" in Central Ostrobothnia, circular economy activities were developed. DESIRA gathered a broadly inclusive network in the area, including rural businesses (also services), public sector representatives, citizen groups, digital technology actors, agricultural enterprises, media/communication experts, and representatives from educational institutions.

The project was coordinated by the University of Pisa, and the partners included 25 top European universities and research institutions.

DESIRA partners:
  • Università di Pisa
  • The James Hutton Institute
  • FIBL Switzerland – The research institute for organic agriculture
  • SISTEMA Gmbh – Environmental information mining
  • Universidad de Córdoba
  • Consiglio Nazionali delle Ricerche
  • Cultivate
  • SARGA - Sociedad Aragonesa de Gestión Agroambiental SL.
  • AEIDL
  • Zemnieku Saeima
  • Karlsruher Institut Fuer Technologie (KIT) - Institut für Technikfolgenabschätzung und Systemanalyse (ITAS)
  • Amigo SRL
  • Ghent University
  • Stichting Wageningen Research
  • Wageningen University
  • Baltic Studies Centre
  • Advisory Service Croatia - ASC
  • Uniwersytet Łódzki
  • Instituut voor Landbouw, visserij en voedingsonderzoek
  • University of Jyväskylä
  • Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique
  • Erevnitiko Kentro Kainotomias Stis Technologies Tis Pliroforias Ton Epikoinonion Kai Tis Gnosis – AHINA
  • Debreceni Egyetem
  • PEFC – Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification
  • Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forschung E.V. – IESE 

More information

Senior Researcher Jouni Kaipainen
Publication