Nowadays, rural areas face various stakes: aging and declining population, poor local economy, isolation, lack of use of the ICT, lack of infrastructures, inertia regarding innovation... To address these issues, GRISI PLUS wants to introduce a new modernity in EU rural areas, mainly based on the results achieved in the development and implementation of geomatics tools within the GRISI project (Interreg 3C) and welcoming practices under the SOHO SOLO project (Interreg 3B).GRISI PLUS aims at improving the effectiveness and enriching economic development policies in rural areas by increasing the use of geographical information and geomatics tools (Information Society approaches and practices) to give decision-support tools to public key players and policymakers. To achieve this goal, partners will exchange experience, identify and transfer good practices in 2 domains related to their common issues for the revitalization of rural territories: - Development of the attractiveness of ruralterritories to attract new inhabitants. The latter will be able to telework (work at distance) thanks to the New ICT. These new inhabitants bring new skills and wealth, are concerned by the environmental protection and they contribute in maintaining proximity services. They thus contribute in reinforcing territorial cohesion, developing employment and increasing competitiveness in EU- Promotion of local tangible and intangible productsGRISI PLUS gathers 14 partners from 11MS of the North, South, East and West areas, thus covering widely the EU territory. The partnership includes Regions, Provinces, Associations of municipalities and territorial development agencies to consider different territorial levels and their competences. A balance between more and less experienced partners is kept to ensure a win-win cooperation for all rural territories. All partners participated actively in the preparation and the majority will play a crucial role in the project execution.The mail activityis the identification and transfer of good practices to improve 13 economic development policies of rural areas. Its success relies on 2 essential elements: effective project coordination and a communication strategy to disseminate the results to policymakers, citizens, and to 42 other relevant institutions, thus raising awareness to key players on the themes tackled. The main outputs and results are:- 13 implementation plans (1 per partner region) and publication of 1 good practices guide- Improvement of 13 economic development policies in rural areas- Successful transfer of at least 5 good practices- Identification and analysis of 10 good practices in each partner region- 42 other relevant institutions aware of the project results- Durability of the results by being present in existing online media in each partner region- 5 study visits, 1 seminar and 1 training session to exchange experience- Organization of a launching and a final conference with over 450 participants Achievements: The objective of GRISI PLUS is to improve the effectiveness and enriching economic development policies in rural areas by increasing the use of geographical information and geomatics tools (Information Society approaches and practices) to give decision-support tools to public key players and policymakers. To achieve this goal, partners will exchange experience, identify and transfer good practices in 2 domains related to their common issues for the revitalization of rural territories: - Development of the attractiveness of rural territories to attract new inhabitants. The latter will be able to telework (work at distance) thanks to the New ICT. These new inhabitants bring new skills and wealth, are concerned by the environmental protection and they contribute in maintaining proximity services. They thus contribute in reinforcing territorial cohesion, developing employment and increasing competitiveness in EU - Promotion of local tangible and intangible products A balance... ...between more and less experienced partners is kept to ensure win-win cooperation for all rural territories. All partners participated actively in the preparation and the majority will play a crucial role in the project execution. The main activity is the identification and transfer of good practices to improve 13 economic development policies of rural areas. GRISI PLUS gathers 14 partners from 11 countries of the North, South, East and West areas, thus covering widely the EU territory. GRISI PLUS will organise workshops in more experienced territories where during dedicated visits on the fields, the good practices in place will be studied. During each workshop, the partner could present a similar good practice around the attraction of rural territories policies. After each workshop, each partner has to evaluate the transfer feasibility of the demonstrated good practices. In the working plan, one workshop and one study visit have been planned during a weekly session each semester. Project activities got started with a kick-off meeting in Auch (France) in February 2012 where despite highly disrupted air traffic due to the snow in France, a large majority of the partnership was present (70 people were present). The kick-off allowed partners to commit, discuss methodology and project perspectives. During the first study visit of the six programmed throughout the project, the CCI of Gers (France) described two success stories about the uses of geomatic tools in the Gers province during the last years and resulting from European Territorial Cooperation projects: - One is the SOHO-SOLO initiative from a IIIB SUDOE project about the welcoming of new inhabitants aiming to encourage freelances to move to the Gers province with their families since 2008 (more than 500 new families have been used the SOHO SOLO programme before their installation in the Gers province. This good practice is very interesting when the local authorities want to develop their rural policies; the other one is the GEOWINE good practice which aims at certifying the geographic origin of wine. These two good practices have the common point to use the geomatics technology. All partners (except for the LP) drafted a feasibility study to evaluate the possibility of implementation of the 2 GP presented by the LP, in their respective area.