The desired impact of this project was to strengthen the capacity of rural areas to successfully engage with digital innovation. Key to achieving this are digital pioneers which can be defined as individuals that possess a specific set of skills, knowledge and resources that allows them to adopt and disseminate digital innovations prior to others. The DigiTrans Hub aims to nurture a new generation of said digital pioneers by providing understanding of key concepts and practical instruments that allow individuals to understand the impact of digital transformation on their region and develop solutions accordingly. Secondly, in contrast to many existing best-practice databases the DigiTrans Hub allows users to collaborate with each other based on shared interests. Taken together, the DigiTrans project has the potential to unfold a lasting positive impact that is manifested in a growing number of regions that apply ‘smart’ strategies.
The original project application opened with the following sentence: ‘Rural Europe's future in the 21st century will be defined by its ability to engage with digital innovation.’ The entire project’s philosophy was founded on this seemingly simple but far-reaching acknowledgement. While the number of ‘smart regions’, ‘digital villages’ and similar concepts is growing in recent years, these initiatives often remain bound to a regional level and thus cannot unfold their maximum potential. That is why the project has addressed the collaboration between stakeholders that engage with digital innovation and transformation in rural Europe on various levels. First and foremost, it addressed the need of rural digital pioneers to become part of European networks to accelerate cross-country communication and collaboration. On a more abstract level, the DigiTrans project contributed to the recognition of digital transformation as a common European challenge which can only be addressed by transdisciplinary Smart Region methodologies that facilitate the co-design, co-development and co-implementation of digital innovation.