Report on the European Rural Mobility Network (ERMN) : including an action plan for post-project continuation

A key recommendation of the prior SMARTA project was to develop a forum for rural stakeholders at the local level - local government, rural development agencies, social service providers, communities, and mobility providers - both to exchange experience and to develop a collective voice. The scope of SMARTA-NET included this aspect as its key pillar. Inspired by the CIVITAS and LEADER practice, the project looked to empower local rural authorities to engage in dialogue, share best practices and learn from peers, facilitating capacity-building activities to support the implementation of shared mobility services. This report presents what was actually achieved. Responding to this mandate, SMARTA-NET project established the European Rural Mobility Network (ERMN) in 2023 with the following key objectives: - Provide Europe's first network and forum on rural mobility; - Bring together municipalities, multipliers, associations and practitioners; - Share experience, both peer-to-peer and structured collective outputs; - Provide a platform to discuss and explore solutions to issues of common interest; - Assemble and structure the perspectives of diverse rural stakeholders across Europe; - Start a process that enables a "voice" to emerge from the grassroots level that will inform regional, national and European policy-makers on rural mobility issues; - develop a mechanism for the ERMN to endure beyond the life of the SMARTA-NET project.