• The European LEADER Association for Rural Development (ELARD) is organizing these awards for the first time in collaboration with the national federations of European LAGs.
• The awards are part of the program of the "LEADER European Congress"

Projects funded through the LEADER approach cover a variety of topics, ranging from public sector beneficiaries to private companies. They can fund a rural house, a rural tourism project , a documentary, or an insect farm , among many others. But the underlying thread that unites them is clear: support and promotion of rural development. with a local vision.

In response, the European LEADER Partnership for Rural Development ( ELARD ) – an independent entity made up of 29 Member States and more than 2,500 LAGs (Local Action Groups) – has decided to reward some of these projects through new awards: the “LEADER European Awards ”.

This call is open to any public or private project from any of its member states, including Spain.

The award is part of ELARD's celebration of the "1st European LEADER Congress" , An event taking place on December 18 and 19 at the European Parliament (Brussels) to bring together all European LAGs who wish to participate. The awards presentation will take place on the first day of the conference.

Objectives and categories

Thecall states that its objective is to "reward the most innovative and impactful European projects," as well as to promote the concrete results achieved by these initiatives.

There are four different categories:

• Favorite Award of the European Parliament
• ELARD Award
• Awards to LEADER Congress partners
• Popular Choice Award

Conditions and phases

To be eligible for the awards, a series of requirements must be met:

• The project must belong to the 2014-2020 programming period.
• They must be projects already completed, executed or finished.
• Cooperation projects will be accepted as long as they are submitted by only one of the national partners.
• Project members or the corresponding LAG must create a presentation video in English (or with English subtitles) of a maximum of 3 minutes . This video must describe the project's activities . If the LEADER project is shortlisted, the video will be used as a presentation at the awards ceremony.
• Participation is completely free.
• There are two possibilities to participate:
  • For ELARD members : fill out the registration form and is sent to the Spanish Rural Development Network ( REDR ) email address ( redr@redr.es ) , which will be responsible for submitting the corresponding application. The form must be completed in English .
  • For non-members : fill out the form (also in English ) and send it to leadercongress2023@elard.eu .

The competition is open until November 10th . After that, on November 17th, REDR will notify participants if they have been nominated—unless they registered directly with ELARD, in which case they will send their decision on November 21st.

The popular vote will be open between November 21 and December 5.

The final prize, chosen by the jury , first goes through a national stage , where three projects will be preselected; a European stage , where the nominees will present their project for the Parliamentary Prize, the ELARD Prize, or the ELARD Congress Partners Prize; and, finally, the open prize, chosen by popular vote .

“1st European LEADER Congress”

The conference aims to bring together more than 600 LAGs from across Europe, European Commission officials, MEPs involved in LEADER and rural development, as well as representatives of European CAP networks and managing authorities.

Its objective is to "bring together representatives of the LEADER program and participatory local development in Europe to take stock of rural development in Europe," the organization says, "to give rural areas a place and a voice in the European Parliament's hemicycle and to highlight the challenges facing rural areas in the context of a pre-election year."

Registration for the event will be open until December 1st. To register, please send an email to leadercongress2023@elard.eu .