In 2020, the European Commission initiated the preparation of a new long-term vision for rural areas. SHERPA can contribute to the process by feeding in the views of science-society-policy actors from 20 European territories. SHERPA Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs) are invited to discuss local challenges and opportunities as well as their vision for the future of their territory (or their thematic area) over the next 20 years. The exercise will follow the SHERPA standard process: (i) preparation of a SHERPA Discussion Paper, (ii) adaptation of the Discussion Paper by each regional or national MAP, (iii) consultation with MAP participants, (iv) summary of the discussions in a MAP Position Paper, (v) synthesis of the regional and national MAP Position Papers for discussion at EU level (EU MAP and annual conference). This draft SHERPA Discussion Paper provides a synthesis of rural opportunities and challenges identified in recent publications. The final version will include results of EU funded research projects and statistics for the indicators identified in this document. Guidance on how to conduct the consultation in the Multi-Actor Platforms is provided in a separate document.
