Search Results (75)

Depopulation and structural demographic challenges affect social and territorial cohesion in Europe, a phenomenon that is particularly evident in rural municipalities in Spain, where the loss of the working-age population and the concentration of older adults threaten sustainability. This study analyzes the case of Pescueza (Cáceres, Spain) using a mixed-methods design that combines longitudinal demographic analysis (2000–2024) with a qualitative evaluation of the community project “Quédate con nosotr@s,” which focuses on comprehensive care and intergenerational participation. The results are critical regarding the demographic structure, with an aging index of 500% and dependency levels three times higher than the national average, although a slight demographic recovery linked to local initiatives is observed. This project has positive effects on social cohesion, community capital, and resilience in the face of demographic challenges, establishing itself as a replicable model for rural micro-territories. The study proposes a strategic framework based on the SWOT-CAME matrix and social sustainability indicators, aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and European territorial cohesion policies. It concludes that social innovation, collaborative governance, and multilevel cooperation are key elements for addressing rural aging, and recommends public policies aimed at stable funding, inclusive digitalization, attracting young people, specialized training, and the creation of adapted infrastructure. Full article

Background: This paper addresses the need to clarify and highlight the vital roles non-state actors play in strengthening the disaster management ecosystem, drawing on knowledge and experience across sectors and entities. The objective is to underscore the irreplaceable roles of non-state actors in disaster response and the need for shared capacities through the coordination, adoption, and application of agreed-upon protocols across actors and contexts. The research’s ultimate goal is to provide policymakers, crisis managers, non-state actors, and volunteer coordinators with a comprehensive overview of the functional areas, competencies, and capacities of civic organisations across all phases of disaster management. Integrating these organisations into existing governmental crisis management systems offers an opportunity to enhance community resources and capacities through unified communication and interoperability protocols based on existing technical and ethical standards. Methods: The research reviews academic literature, legal and policy frameworks, and grey literature, including recommendations and experiences documented in a repository of 140 CORDIS EU-funded initiatives that illustrate expert and institutional opinions on disaster management. The manuscript also relies on secondary data analyses presenting the opinions collected from 50 participants in an interactive group exercise on the role of non-state actors and volunteers. It further draws on aggregated knowledge from nine consultative workshops involving 20 civic and governmental organisations, synthesising practices, formal standards, robust coordination frameworks, and command-and-control system rules into an innovative voluntary disaster response protocol for non-state actors and volunteers. The findings demonstrate the value of non-state actors in disaster management and how gaps in their engagement can create opportunities to strengthen the disaster management ecosystem by enhancing the cohesion of capacities and resources. Compared with international standards (INSARAG, etc.), a protocol incorporating technical and integrity norms in an accessible, adaptable format emphasises the importance of integrating non-state actors into the formal disaster crisis management system. Conclusions: Establishing a set of standards for coordinated awareness and response, facilitated by continuous communication of roles and competencies among disaster responders at both local and international levels, is essential for the sustainable mitigation of negative impacts before, during, and after emergencies or catastrophic events. Full article

This study examines the non-linear relationship between European Structural and Investment (ESI) Funds and socio-economic development across EU member states from 2007 to 2020. To accomplish this, the study utilises a novel methodological approach, employing panel threshold regression to analyse the complex interactions between these variables. Using the Human Development Index (HDI) as a comprehensive measure of socio-economic progress, this research goes beyond traditional metrics, such as GDP, to capture a multidimensional view of development. The threshold variable, represented by the ratio of ESI Funds paid to GDP, highlights critical inflexion points where the impact of funding shifts, revealing both positive and negative effects. The study finds that ESI Funds positively impact socio-economic development up to a threshold of 0.7% of GDP, beyond which their effectiveness diminishes, emphasising the need for strategic allocation and management. Additionally, the analysis of control variables identifies a critical threshold range between 2% and 2.3% of GDP, indicating the growing importance of ESI Funds in fostering development within complex socio-economic contexts. This paper contributes to the foundational model of socio-economic development informed by ESI Funds, offering valuable insights for policymakers by emphasising the importance of balancing funding levels with strategic allocation to avoid diminishing returns. Full article

This paper employs a top-down methodological approach to identify the most relevant contributions in the literature on the impact of European Cohesion Policy and European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIFs) on regional development. After a broad-spectrum bibliometric review, identifying the overall structure of research in this field, we systematically narrow its focus to quantitative studies and, ultimately, to econometric analyses of ESIF effectiveness. The results indicate that empirical research on ESIFs has grown in complexity, with increasing reliance on advanced econometric techniques such as spatial econometrics, difference-in-differences, and regression discontinuity designs. While a large portion of the literature finds positive effects on economic growth, employment, and regional convergence, these effects are frequently conditional on governance quality, institutional frameworks, and regional characteristics. In contrast, some studies report insignificant or even negative impacts, highlighting inefficiencies in fund allocation and policy implementation. The findings emphasize the necessity for context-specific policy adaptations, ensuring that ESIFs continue to support the evolving needs of regional economies in the European Union. Full article

This work presents the transition of Western Macedonia from a lignite-dominated energy model to a sustainable system based on renewable resources, with particular emphasis on the interlinked roles of policy, regulation, and financing. The analysis is centered on the utilization of biomass and residual waste for district heating applications, highlighting the contribution of the Just Transition Fund and the Greek Green Fund. The study also evaluates the regulatory and institutional frameworks that either support or hinder renewable energy deployment, while embedding the principles of circular economy and cross-border cooperation. The insights derived serve as a reference point for regions undergoing similar post-coal transitions, offering a comprehensive roadmap for sustainable energy integration underpinned by policy alignment and financial cohesion. Full article

The European Union’s Cohesion Policy is a key instrument designed to reduce disparities among regions and promote sustainable, inclusive growth across Europe. In the context of the green and digital transitions, understanding how Cohesion Policy funds affect innovation is crucial to effective policy design. This study examines the impact of these funds on firm-level innovation in three domains: digital, green, and combined digital–green innovation. Using firm-level data and econometric models, our analysis uncovers a strong and statistically significant positive effect of Cohesion Policy funding on digital innovation. The impact on green innovation alone is positive but weaker and only marginally significant. Innovations that are both digital and green benefit from Cohesion Policy significantly, highlighting the potential of integrated innovation strategies. Full article

After the powerful socioeconomic shock of the fall of the communist regime in the early 90s, the ten countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) analyzed in this study became growing Member States of the European Union (EU). However, they faced the 2008 financial crisis, the 2019 COVID shock, and sharp income disparities both at the regional level and compared to the countries in Western EU. This study explores the differences in sustainable regional development, modeling with Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) to analyze relationships across multiple cross-sections in the short and long run, as well as with Cointegration Tests and Granger Panel Causality to detect evidence of causality among the variables in the study. The analysis covers 2012–2022, a period in which the Member States from CEE had the best access to generous structural and cohesion EU funds and that includes both the post-financial crisis convergence phase and the COVID-19 shock, enabling us to capture regional resilience dynamics. The results indicate that capital formation and population density positively influence disposable household income in the long run, across CEE regions, while unemployment and life expectancy exert negative effects. The results of this paper can be of use to decision-making institutions seeking to implement proactive socioeconomic policies in the lagging regions, before the next crisis, focused on capital investments, reducing unemployment, and bridging the rural–urban divide. The study contributes to the literature on inclusive and sustainable economic development at the CEE regional level. Full article

The term Environmental Biotechnology is widely used, but lacks a universally accepted definition, with varying interpretations across disciplines and sectors leading to challenges in funding, policy formulation, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Through a literature review and engagement activities, this study examines existing definitions, identifies key areas of divergence, and explores pathways toward a more cohesive understanding. Findings reveal a spectrum of valid interpretations, often shaped by specific contexts, with researchers generally recognising a shared conceptual framework within their own subfields but encountering ambiguities across subject boundaries. Common points of difference include whether Environmental Biotechnology is restricted to microorganisms or encompasses other biological systems. Some understandings reflect sector-specific needs, contributing to fragmentation, though a broader approach could strengthen the field’s identity by providing a unifying framework, mapping overlaps with related fields such as Industrial Biotechnology. A working definition is proposed for Environmental Biotechnology as the use of biologically mediated systems for environmental protection and bioremediation, incorporating resource recovery and bioenergy production where these enhance system sustainability. Importantly, it was recognised that any definition must remain adaptable, reflecting the evolving nature of both the science and its applications. Full article

The National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) represents a transformative opportunity to reduce territorial, gender and generational disparities in Italy. It plays an even more important role for inner areas, which make up about three-fifths of the entire national territory and require structural investment to improve infrastructure, social services and access to healthcare services. This study aims to analyse the distribution of funds by project type, and to develop a geostatistical analysis-based methodology to critically evaluate two key aspects: the ability of small municipalities to access resources, and the effectiveness of the funding programme in meeting the specific needs of inner areas. The developed methodology consists of several steps aimed at collecting, standardising, geo-spatialising and analysing data relating to NRRP funds. This methodology is then applied to a case study of the Abruzzo region (Italy), which is considered particularly interesting due to its physical, historical and socio-economic characteristics that make it particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. The developed methodology consists of several steps aimed at collecting, standardising, geo-spatialising and analysing data relating to NRRP funds. The results of the spatial autocorrelation and cluster analyses were then overlapped and compared with the internal areas defined by the National Strategy for Inner Areas (NSIA). The outcomes reveal how investments interact with existing spatial planning instruments and development strategies, underscoring the critical role of accessibility, infrastructure, and public services in fostering equitable and sustainable regional development. The analysis offers insights into addressing structural disparities and enhancing territorial cohesion, with implications for policy alignment across multiple levels of governance. Full article

In recent years, the field of European funds for business development has generated significant interest in the academic literature, stimulated by European Union (EU) regulations and the implementation of business financing programs. This context has led to an increase in research on the impact and use of European funds, particularly in terms of support for economic development and infrastructure. This paper presents a bibliometric analysis, using topic modeling, to examine academic publications on the use and absorption of European funds and how they influence the business environment. Using a dataset of 74 publications indexed in the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Core Collection, covering the period 2005–2024, the present study aims to identify the main authors, institutions, journals, and collaboration networks involved. It also analyzes research trends, dominant themes, and the countries with the largest contributions in this field, using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and BERTopic analysis as a complement to the classical bibliometric approach. The thematic analysis reveals a thematic cohesion around entrepreneurship, EU structural funds, regional development, and innovation. In addition, there has been a significant annual increase in publications in this field, and through the use of thematic maps, word clouds, and collaboration networks, this study provides an overview of the evolution of research on the absorption of European funds and its impact on the business environment. These findings contribute both to deepening academic knowledge and to formulating more effective European policies for optimizing fund absorption and supporting the sustainable development of the business environment. Full article

This study examines regional disparities and convergence dynamics in paediatric healthcare accessibility across Poland’s 16 provinces between 2010 and 2023. A synthetic Paediatric Service Accessibility Index (PSA Index), constructed with Hellwig’s method, is combined with socio-economic indicators such as employment, urbanisation, and disposable income to evaluate the alignment between healthcare provision and regional development. The analysis employs non-parametric regional tests (Spearman’s rank correlation, Wilcoxon signed-rank test) and national panel regression models (Fixed and Random Effects). Results demonstrate significant spatial heterogeneity: economically advanced regions, including Mazowieckie and Małopolskie, show moderate to strong convergence between socio-economic progress and healthcare access, whereas structurally weaker regions such as Lubuskie and Podkarpackie reveal persistent divergence. Disposable income and urbanisation emerge as significant predictors of healthcare availability (p < 0.01), while employment is not statistically significant. The findings highlight enduring inequalities that are relevant in the context of the European Union’s (EU) cohesion policy and indicate that economic growth alone is insufficient to ensure equitable access to paediatric care. Comparative evidence from Romania, Bulgaria, and Spain points to similar patterns and emphasises the importance of EU Structural and Investment Funds in promoting healthcare equity. The study concludes that territorially sensitive, multidimensional interventions are necessary to advance social sustainability and to align healthcare infrastructure with the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities). Full article

The European Union (EU) has been identified as a leading stakeholder relating to urban regeneration. In cases such as Spain, on which this research focuses, the EU influence has resulted in an understanding of urban regeneration as a policy of strategic nature. The literature on the urban dimension of regeneration has reinforced the need to implement strategic and statutory complementarity in urban transformation to address the complex physical problems of vulnerable urban areas. This work focuses on this policy issue using a qualitative methodology based on a literature review and the analysis of planning documents through the storyline analysis tool. The research identifies that under the urban EU Cohesion Policy (CP) 2014–2020, only 4 out of 28 integrated sustainable urban development strategies in Spain implemented the urban regeneration strategic approach in complementarity with statutory instruments. This has led to regeneration projects with restricted capacity to address the physical problems identified, a fact that perpetuates the disadvantage of the neighbourhoods where it operated and limits the efficiency of EU funding. The results highlight the value of reviewing urban instruments under the CP, advancing towards a vision in which statutory/strategic approaches work in complementarity in the post-2027 period. Full article

This study examines the effects of supply chain pressure, smart AI, and socio-economic fairness on long-term economic sustainability. To this end, this study uses quarterly data from 1999 Q1 through 2024 Q4 for the United States and employs the recently introduced Wavelet Cross-Quantile Regression (WCQR) to analyze this relationship. This study finds that smart AI, supply chain pressure (SC), and renewable energy consumption (REC) significantly drive U.S. economic growth, with the strongest short-term effects appearing when adoption and output are in the lower quantiles, reflecting threshold and diffusion dynamics. SC enhances growth once supply chain networks reach a critical level of connectivity, while REC generates substantial gains at low penetration levels, illustrating a “catch-up” effect. In contrast, economic inequality (EI) generally dampens growth, especially at moderate to high inequality levels; however, long-term reductions in EI yield positive returns in high-growth states by improving social cohesion and workforce productivity. Based on these findings, this study proposes funding low-adoption AI now, scaling to mid-adoption users mid-term, and entrenching long-term gains through economy-wide upskilling. Full article

Background: Between 2014 and 2024, Poland underwent a significant digital transformation in its healthcare sector, evolving from isolated initiatives to a cohesive national eHealth ecosystem. This review examines the development, clinical significance, and research trends in telemedicine in Poland, providing comparative insights from 1995 to 2015 and assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A narrative review was conducted using the PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases to identify peer-reviewed articles published between January 2014 and December 2024. A total of 1012 records were identified, and 212 articles were included after applying predefined inclusion criteria. These articles were categorized by medical specialty, study type, COVID-19 relevance, and clinical versus nonclinical focus. Gray literature and policy reports were examined only to provide a context for the findings. Results: Ninety-six publications were included in the clinical studies. The most common specialties are cardiology, psychiatry, geriatrics, general practice, and rehabilitation. In earlier years, survey-based and observational designs were predominant, whereas later years saw an increase in interventional trials and studies enabled by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on research activity, accelerating the adoption of digital technologies in previously underrepresented fields, such as pulmonology and palliative care, as well as in the routine use of modern Internet communication technologies for daily patient–doctor interactions. Discussion: Advancements in digital health (including eHealth and telemedicine) in Poland have been driven by policy reforms, technological advancements, and epidemiological events, such as COVID-19. Various fields have evolved from feasibility studies to clinical trials, and emerging specialties have focused on user experience and implementation. However, the adoption of AI and its interoperability remains underdeveloped, primarily because of regulatory and reimbursement challenges. Conclusions: Poland has made significant strides in institutionalizing digital health; however, ongoing innovation necessitates regulatory alignment, strategic funding, and enhanced collaboration between academia and industry. As the country aligns with the European Union (EU) initiatives, such as the European Health Data Space, it has the potential to lead to regional integration in digital health. Full article

The TOWCHED project explores how arts and heritage-based educational methodologies can support sustainable development by enhancing key transversal competencies in learners, particularly children and youth. In response to the global challenges outlined in the sustainable development goals (SDGs), this project promotes inclusive and participatory approaches to education that foster social cohesion, intercultural understanding, and civic engagement. Partnering with museums, TOWCHED develops cross-curricular pedagogical interventions, such as experiential, blended, and collection-mediated learning, that link cultural heritage with contemporary social and environmental concerns. These approaches aim to strengthen creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and self-awareness. TOWCHED demonstrates that heritage collection-based education can play a vital role in transforming schools and other learning environments into hubs for sustainable, lifelong learning. By embedding cultural expression and heritage into educational practices, the project offers a compelling model for empowering individuals to navigate and shape a more equitable and interconnected world. This paper has two aims. First, we introduce TOWCHED, an interdisciplinary project recently funded by the Horizon Europe program of the European Union to preserve and promote education for sustainability in the heritage context. Second, we introduce a set of tools related to the project. Full article