News details

After three years, the DigiBeL project was completed at the end of March 2023. Together with the "Institut für Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaft" (Institute for Communication and Media Studies) at the University of Leipzig, the IfLS e.V. had been researching the perspectives and possible applications of digital participation processes in rural regional development since April 2020.

Our final event on 27 March was also entirely digital. We were able to present project results to a small but very interested expert audience and hold exciting discussions.

We would like to thank Prof. Dr. Diane Ahrens from the Deggendorf Institute of Technology for the keynote speech "Citizen participation as a guarantee of success for digital transformation in rural areas", with which she directed our attention to the Bavarian model villages and pointed out, among other things, that digital participation is part of the provision of public services. We also gained insights into the results of the BULE+ project (Federal Rural Development Scheme) HeiDi - "Heimat Digital: Potenziale und Strategien digitaler Regionalentwicklung im ländlichen Raum" (Potentials and Strategies of Digital Regional Development in Rural Areas) through a presentation by Dr. Lisa Birnbaum and Carola Rebecca Wilhelm.

In the podcast on the project, DigitaLand, the sixth and final episode reflects on the project work once again in retrospect. It also discusses how the results will be used after the end of the project - including the recommendations for action and policy. You can find the podcast via the website as well as via the known podcast providers.

The podcast and the results documents from the project can still be found on the DigiBeL website after the end of the project.

DigiBeL was funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) through the Federal Rural Development Scheme (BULE+).

Contact persons at IfLS: Simone Sterly (sterly[at]ifls.de) and Sarah Peter (peter[at]ifls.de)