|
Pillar 1: Establish the preconditions for innovation |
|
Access to digital infrastructure |
-
“Last-mile” broadband subsidy schemes
-
Short-term digital bootcamps for rural residents (e.g. Tech hubs).
-
Satellite-based internet solutions and mobile broadband towers
-
Subsidies or tax incentives for private providers to deliver broadband to low-density areas
|
☐ Implement targets and milestones for universal broadband, transport, energy.
☐ Extend fibre coverage in growing peri-urban areas and remote areas.
☐ Integrate digital infrastructure planning into regional development strategies (align with new housing and industrial developments). |
|
Access to skills |
|
☐ Expand partnerships between rural schools and nearby urban employers to co-design vocational training pathways.
☐ Partner with local Indigenous organisations to co-create culturally appropriate vocational programmes (e.g. in tourism, land management). |
|
Pillar 2: Design for Rural Innovators |
|
Target policies for rural firms |
-
Innovation vouchers
-
Community finance vehicles (revolving micro-loans; guarantee top-ups)
-
Export starter packs (e.g. brokered B2B, logistics support)
-
Succession planning advice
-
Small-firm support advice, with micro-accelerators tied to local niches
-
Roundtables and mandated obligations to reach underserved rural firms.
|
☐ Develop diverse legal forms (e.g. social enterprise) that are eligible for grants and tax reliefs.
☐ Define open eligibility rules (for diverse types of businesses and social innovators).
☐ Tailor instruments and finance to the scale, age and structure of rural SMEs and family businesses. |
|
Target policies for rural entrepreneurs |
-
Dedicated entrepreneurship streams (women, youth, Indigenous)
-
Wrap-around supports (childcare, transport stipends)
-
Mentoring and micro-credential pathways with local employers
|
☐ Create inclusive and flexible pathways for learning and for minority entrepreneurs.
☐ Make outreach routine (e.g. mobile services and multi-use sites for sparse/remote areas).
☐ Ensure skills offer includes micro-credentials, digital basics, SME training. |
|
Pillar 3: Build networks and linkages |
|
Create public-private and innovation partnerships |
-
Challenge prizes co-funded with industry
-
Data-sharing MOUs (utilities, telcos) for local problem-solving
-
Fund intermediaries (e.g. university-SME brokers, college tech centers, regional hubs/fab labs)
-
University-SME brokerage contracts, college technology extensions for applied R&D
-
MOUs with nearby universities for joint projects, interns and rapid prototyping.
|
☐ Co-design, finance and de-risk solutions (e.g., broadband, research facilities, attractions).
☐ Ensure knowledge brokers (e.g. interface units, tech-transfer colleges) are funded to link rural SMEs with universities/industry labs. |
|
Build scale with regional alliances and entrepreneurial ecosystems |
-
Regional challenge funds for multi-project coalitions
-
Joint procurement / shared services across municipalities
-
Community finance vehicles (e.g. revolving loans / guarantees)
|
☐ Build local area-based hubs (co-working, gab-labs) and shared services to concentrate support and create density
☐ Implement functional-area funding to supports joint bids across municipalities. |
|
Strengthen urban-rural links |
-
Regular forums to identify niches and value-chain partners.
-
Urban–rural cluster initiatives (supply-chain and export consortia).
-
Market access tools (export groups, tourism circuits)
|
☐ Market opportunity identified (e.g. for logistics, distributed manufacturing).
☐ Demand segments and production / supply chain partners identified.
☐ Implement rural-urban coalitions in place. |
|
Connect to global markets |
-
Regional trade promotion and brokerage to plug into value chains.
-
Regular forums to identify niches and value-chain partners.
-
Export starter packs (e.g. brokered B2B, logistics support)
-
Logistics & market-access instruments (freight solutions, export starters)
|
☐ Identify market opportunity (e.g. for logistics, distributed manufacturing).
☐ Identify demand segments and production / supply chain partners.
☐ Create partnerships between SMEs and multinationals in place. |
|
Pillar 4: Experiment for local solutions |
|
Recognise and support social innovation |
-
Social enterprise funds & vouchers
-
Outcome-based procurement lots for service innovation
-
Advisory consortia for social ventures (incubation / mentoring)
-
Community innovation funds for service redesign (health, childcare, mobility, ageing)
|
☐ Broaden the definition on innovation and treat social enterprises and community groups as core innovators.
☐ Ensure local awards and procurement lots explicitly include social innovation, including outcome-based procurement to buy from rural providers (e.g. for service provision). |
|
Structure open innovation for pressing challenges |
|
☐ Create platforms for individuals to work collaboratively on innovative new local solutions. |
|
Build a culture for experimentation |
-
Local living labs (e.g. remote care, telemedicine, agri-automation, circular economy).
-
Regulatory sandboxes.
-
Pilot waivers and experimentation clauses
-
Grant-seeking and project delivery capacity for small municipalities
|
☐ Structure the opreration of local living labs.
☐ Create availability of regulatory sandboxes / testbeds (e.g. digital, fintech, agri-tech, mobility, health) outside metro areas. |
|
Pillar 5: Facilitate with simplified and coordinated support |
|
Simplify access to services |
-
One-stop “single window” for permits, grants, advice
-
Digital service co-location (virtual clinics, remote learning, e-advice).
-
Mobile delivery (roving advisors, pop-up skills)
-
Multi-use sites (hub combining childcare, skills, incubation, public services)
-
Fast-track local licensing for pilots and seasonal activity, with clear risk management.
|
☐ Provide one-stop shops and bottom-up platforms (e.g. for licences, advice, etc.)
☐ Ensure access to local finance navigation (loan clinics, guarantee uptake, investor days).
☐ Provide national platforms for mentoring, export consortia and co-operative purchasing / logistics.
☐ Ensure grant design is SME-friendly (short forms, rolling calls, multi-year flexible funding). |
|
Coordinate policy packages |
-
Place-based “front desks” (e.g. in libraries / hubs) that inform on all national and regional schemes.
-
Multi-level compacts (skills-finance-trade aligned offers)
-
Pooled budgets and shared KPIs across ministries and agencies
|
☐ Ensure horizontal co-ordination for harmonized access to skills, finance, and global markets.
☐ Provide single “front door”: one-stop advisors for all programmes.
☐ Cross-ministry compacts align skills, finance, trade and infrastructure |
|
Pillar 6: Measure and learn with wide rural data access |
|
Improve access to information in rural areas |
-
Single online portal + local front desks
-
Tools for easy and inclusive access to civic participation
-
Rural observatory / dashboards, with rural-proofed data and classifications
|
☐ Enhance data and measurements to capture rural trends and performance for policy monitoring purposes.
☐ Use improved rural data and statistics (e.g. at functional area level) to inform funding formulas. |
|
Set up monitoring and evaluation |
-
Rural impact assessments, e.g. of initiatives for indigenous innovation
-
Use anticipatory governance (e.g. foresight, rural observatories, scenario drills)
-
Participatory M&E dashboards for service access, business outcomes and inclusion.
-
Close the loop (e.g. publish lessons, update rules/programmes).
|
☐ Build municipal capacity in monitoring of innovation-related programmes.
☐ Develop foresight capabilities to track trends (e.g. on ageing, automation, climate) and feed rapid policy iteration.
☐ Define multidimensional key performance indicators, including on service/process innovation outcomes, to monitor wide economic and social outcomes and adapt policies accordingly. |