Active Economy in Douro Verde

Ruris was at the heart of this project, which set out to promote a culture of entrepreneurship and organisational capacity building, strengthening the skills of the various players involved in encouraging and stimulating business activity.

Economia Ativa no Douro Verde therefore came about from the need to proactively support the people who live and work, or want to live and work, in the Douro Verde area (a low-density area), with the aim of creating a climate favourable to the emergence of new businesses in traditional sectors such as crop production, livestock and forestry, as well as in trade, industry and services.

The Economia Ativa no Douro Verde project had the following objectives:

• Trialling business ideas;
• Support in creating the Rede Micro Couveuse Rural, a service supporting business start-up and growth specifically aimed at rural initiatives; entrepreneurship;
• Encouraging the creation of new businesses and the acceleration of existing ones;
• Contributing to adding value to farming activities and local produce.

The actions carried out by Ruris were:

• Support with initial planning, monitoring and delivery of the project;
• Development of the study cataloguing best benchmarking practice;
• Organisation and delivery of capacity-building activities for entrepreneurship;
• Delivery of entrepreneur workshops;
• Drafting and structuring of business plans.