Flavours of Europe - Digitalization of Rural Gastronomic Cultural Heritage in Europe

The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly impacted rural areas, exacerbating challenges due to limited financial resources, inaccessible health services, and increased isolation. Natural and cultura...

The FLAVOURS OF EUROPE project aimed to develop high-quality training materials for low-skilled adults, especially women, in rural areas affected by population decline or economic crises due to COVID-19. By 2023, the project sought to create a new curriculum, enhancing the skills of over 800 adults, focusing on inclusive community development through gastronomy heritage tourism. Specific objectives included improving competences of 800 adults in 2023 from rural areas, providing courses in basic digital skills, entrepreneurship, legal frameworks, and digital marketing. Support for 400 women in poor rural communities aimed to transform traditional cooking practices into sustainable tourism businesses, fostering connections between communities and the private sector by 2023. The initiative also aimed to support eight local tourism environments by creating a 2023 training kit for over 80 stakeholders. This kit focused on tailored education, skills development, and training for adults in deprived rural areas. It emphasized inclusive community development through tourism promotion and evaluating human resources within communities. The goal was to empower communities for better resource and business management opportunities.

The project was carried out over a span of 24 months, organized and executed following a work breakdown structure with a set of six content-related work packages (WPs) clustered into three phases: PHASE 1 - MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK The objective of this phase was to create a management, coordination, and assessment system ensuring the project's proper functioning and the achievement of established objectives. It aimed to leverage new technologies to enhance management quality and efficiency. NERDA coordinated the project management activity throughout its lifecycle, covering processes such as scope, time, cost, human resources, quality, communication, procurement, risk, and stakeholder management. WP1 - Project Management, coordinated by NERDA, included initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closing processes. It encompassed the development of the Project Management Plan, Quality Management Plan, Dissemination and Sustainability Plan and Impact Evaluation from the project's outset. Four transnational meetings and ten online meetings were organized during the project, documented with minutes and photos. PHASE 2 - METHODOLOGICAL & TECHNICAL FRAMEWORK WP2 - EUROCREA/Falco&Associati developed the methodology for research, training material development, and testing activities for IO1, IO2, and IO3. It followed the elaboration of the study: "White Paper on GASTRONOMY CULTURAL HERITAGE AND TOURISM DIGITAL MARKETING," coordinated by the University Stefan cel Mare, focusing on future trends in adults' needed skills in rural areas. WP3 - Development, validation, and evaluation of New Training Materials were coordinated by NERDA. This included O2 - Training COURSE - FLAVOURS OF EUROPE - Digitalisation of Rural Gastronomic Cultural Heritage in Europe, coordinated by NERDA, and specific handbooks and toolkits from various partners. WP4 - Development of LMS Platform (Educational E-learning) FLAVOURS OF EUROPE was coordinated by BUDAKOV FILMS. WP5 - Testing of the Educational E-learning Platform: FLAVOURS OF EUROPE was coordinated by EBS, including a survey with a minimum of 50 tourism stakeholders/partners for the first phase of testing IO1-IO3. C1 involved the execution of a Short-term Joint Staff Training on the Educational E-learning Platform, organized by EBS in collaboration with BUDAKOV. E1-E8 focused on testing the Educational E-learning Platform, coordinated by the University Stefan cel Mare, organizing 8 multiplication events to disseminate the project results and apply a second phase of testing the quality and content of results obtained during IO1-IO3. WP6 - Dissemination and Communication were coordinated by Association Incoming Romania, including the organization of the Final Conference - FLAVOURS OF EUROPE - by NERDA, with a minimum of 50 participants. PHASE 3 - DISSEMINATION AND COMMUNICATION This phase supported the other phases in gathering necessary knowledge and spreading project results. Alongside dissemination activities, a sustainable (exploitation) plan was designed to ensure the future of the created training course. The objective was to transfer project results, and an exploitation plan was elaborated, defining different possibilities to exploit the results and ensure their sustainability.

The project spans 24 months, organized into three phases. Phase 1 focuses on establishing a management framework, including project management, coordination, and assessment systems. Phase 2 involves the development of research methodology, training materials, and an educational e-learning platform. Phase 3 emphasizes dissemination, communication, and the creation of a sustainable plan for future project outcomes. Noteworthy components include transnational meetings, handbooks, training courses, testing activities, and a final conference. The ultimate goal is to ensure the project's success, impact and sustainability.