Horizon Project GREENCOOP
Project Information
Title: Green Transition through Cooperation models
Acronym: GREENCOOP
DOI: 10.3030/101182021
Start Date: 1 October 2025
End Date: 30 September 2029
Funded under: Horizon – Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
Total cost: € 5.995.937,50
Coordinated by Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
This project has received funding from the European Union’s HE research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101182021
About GREENCOOP
GREENCOOP is a four-year project funded by the European Union flagship research and innovation programme Horizon Europe. The consortium brings together 19 partners from EU Member States, the United Kingdom and China, and is coordinated by the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. The Agricultural Economics and Consumer Behaviour Lab of the University of Thessaly leads Work Package 1, on Living Labs and the Rural Innovation Business Community Network (RIBC-Net).
Context
European rural areas face land abandonment, an ageing population and the outmigration of young farmers, who also have limited access to new technologies. At the same time, agroecological and digital innovations remain hard to adopt at farm level, because they are rarely adapted to local conditions or to the business realities of rural communities.
GREENCOOP addresses this gap by connecting agroecology and digital innovation to the way rural businesses are organised, so that the green transition also becomes an economic opportunity for the people who live and work in these areas.
Vision & Mission
GREENCOOP fosters the agroecological and digital transition of farming systems in the EU and China, contextualised and interconnected in a sectoral and territorial frame, through the development of Rural Communities Business Models (RCBM) that follow sustainability principles.
GREENCOOP establishes a hybrid physical and online Rural Innovation Business Community Network (RIBC-Net), bringing together 15 Living Labs from EU Member States and 2 from China to co-create, test and implement agroecological and digital innovations across 12 demonstration sites.
Our Objectives
The GREENCOOP project pursues six specific objectives:
- Create a Rural Innovation Business Community Network for the co-creation and evaluation of agroecological and digital innovations and for rural revitalisation.
- Develop six sustainable innovation strategies into Rural Communities Business Models.
- Promote the social economy through a business database (BUS-DB).
- Assess the sustainability of both current and new business models through economic and social impact assessments.
- Develop a digital platform (BUS-PT) that integrates knowledge and supports decision making.
- Increase awareness among citizens, farmers and policy makers.
Within this framework, the Agricultural Economics and Consumer Behaviour Lab coordinates the Living Labs and the RIBC-Net, contributing its experience in participatory methods, territorial diagnosis and socio-economic assessment.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s HE research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101182021. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.