The Institute for Rural Development Research has been commissioned by the Federal State of Thuringia to support the elaboration of its EAFRD Rural Development Programme (RDP) for the 2014-2020 funding period. As a basis, a comprehensive socio-economic analysis and SWOT analysis are developed. Furthermore, the IfLS’s tasks include, for example, facilitating cross-ministerial working groups and workshops ensuring the participation of economic and social partners, authoring text modules of the RDP, as well as supporting the quantification of indicators necessary for monitoring and evaluation.