• The program offers up to 21 million euros in grants for training in digital skills for the rural population.
• Non-profit social entities and local entities will be able to benefit from this aid.
• The "Rural Digital Challenge" program belongs to the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO)

When it comes to performing tasks using a mobile phone or computer, there is a 12-point gap between urban and rural areas: only 66.7 % of people are capable of performing these tasks in rural areas. This is indicated by the 2018 Survey on Equipment and Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Households by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), which provides evidence of the existing digital divide, not only by age, but also between urban and rural areas.

The Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan includes a set of investments and reforms aimed at promoting a change in the economic, productive, and social model to address in a balanced way the challenges of sustainability, digitalization, equality, and territorial cohesion. Thus, within the Recovery Plan is the "National Digital Skills Plan," whose objective is to guarantee the digital training and inclusion of citizens.

Through this, the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO) launched a call for proposals for the "Digital Rural Challenge" Program. with a value of 21 million euros to finance training actions in digital skills for low-density populations.

Beneficiaries

The program focuses on closing the digital divide among the most vulnerable rural groups:

• Elderly people,
• Unemployed people
• Childhood
• Youth

These grants may be awarded to non-profit social organizations and local entities that organize training programs for:

• Acquiring basic digital navigation skills
• Carrying out digital procedures with public administrations
• Problem solving in the digital environment

Training programs must have a minimum duration of 7.5 hours.

The scope of the "Rural Digital Challenge" Program is national . The training programs will be aimed at people residing in:

a) Municipalities with a population equal to or less than 5,000 inhabitants.

b) Municipalities with more than 5,000 inhabitants, when the actions are carried out in local entities (districts, parishes, rural neighborhoods, councils, villages, hamlets and similar).

c) Municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants with dispersed population centers, provided that the actions are carried out in said centers.

The "Rural Digital Challenge" program seeks to train 384,868 people in areas at risk of depopulation in digital skills by 2025.

Deadlines for submitting grants

Applications for these grants may be submitted starting on the first business day following publication in the Official State Gazette (BOE) and for a period of sixty calendar days. They may be submitted online to the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge.

Check here the regulatory bases and the call for aid.