How to revive the village?
Social entrepreneurship makes an important contribution in many countries to addressing pressing social challenges and to sustainable village and regional development. The Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences is addressing this issue as part of the recently launched and Erasmus+ funded project ComEnt - Fostering Innovation in Community Led Enterprise Development.
What is the goal? Researchers from the Research Group Empirical Social Sciences of the FHV are developing a curriculum and course materials for continuing education in Vorarlberg in the field of social entrepreneurship in the context of village and regional development. To this end, the FHV is developing case studies of best practice examples in Vorarlberg and conducting expert:in interviews to identify training needs. On a European level, the project will offer a first online certificate program with 15 ECTS in spring 2023. The academic degree for the degree programme will be awarded by the Technological University of the Shannon in Ireland.
Free participation for certificate study program
Two people from Vorarlberg have the opportunity to participate in this degree programme free of charge as part of the ComEnt project. Contact for further information on the certificate study program via Robert Moosbrugger (robert.moosbrugger@fhv.at).
A first meeting of all project partner organizations took place in Ireland at the beginning of May. The program included a visit to the multi-award winning social enterprise The Cottage. This is a cooperative founded by citizens in the 800-inhabitant community of Loughmore in the west of Ireland. The Cottage Shop & Tearooms was founded in 2012 to combat loneliness and the lack of local amenities in the community. Today, The Cottage is run by a team of full-time staff and volunteers and has led to an amazing community revival.
The ComEnt project grew out of the RUN-EU Alliance and is led by the Technological University of the Shannon in Ireland as lead partner. In addition to the FHV's Empirical Social Sciences research group, the other project partners are ACEEU GmbH (Germany), Archivio della Memoria (Italy), Burgas Free University (Bulgaria), ADV Romania Foundation (Romania), and Communities Creating Jobs (Ireland). The project is currently being implemented and will run until the end of February 2024.
