As a result of the project Sharing Experience: Co-production and Use of a Czech-Norwegian Resource for competence based education to support rural communities, financed from the Czech-Norwegian Research Programme (CZ09) published Charles University Environment Centre publication Sustainable rural entrepreneurship – inspiration. 

On 27th April 2017, the Regional Center of Expertise Czechia was officially launched. After more than a year of efforts by the Charles University Environmental Center, the network was successfully accredited by the United Nations University (UNU). In the Czech Republic, RCE Czechia is the first association of this type, joining the network of Regional Centers of Expertise across the world which today comprises more than 150 such RCE associations. In Central and Eastern Europe, this model of cooperation has been applied only minimally – so far only 4 RCEs have been established in Albania, Russia and Serbia. Full minutes from the opening meeting can be downloaded here .

Photos from the meeting are available in this gallery.

Inaugural meeting of RCE Czechia was financed from the CZ09 Czech-Norwegian Research Programme - project 7F16037 and was also supported by UN Information Centre Prague

Sustainable Rural Development is a process across a range of rural situations, from decline, all the way to flourishing.  It is a journey which takes Rural communities through a trajectory from over- reliance on (often declining) agricultural employment to self-employment using the various rural assets around them.  Examples of this trajectory can be found throughout Europe, yet there are many places where communities are starting out at the very beginning of the process.