The Rural Youth Project (RYP) is a research-based project in Scotland which aims to develop feasible strategies to facilitate the involvement of young people in agricultural and rural activity by better understanding their current situation, aspirations, opportunities and challenges and making comparisons between Scotland, England, Wales and other countries.

In May this year, RYP (in partnership with Scottish Enterprise) visited the Netherlands by way of an innovation safari, organized by Jane Craigie of RYP and Dirk-Jan Kloet, a young Dutch agricultural entrepreneur. Its itinerary included a visit to Amped (Dutch Hub Manager for SMARTCHAIN H2020), i.e. Local2Local. L2L hosted an outdoor session to explore the shared experiences and challenges in the Short Food Supply Chain. Local2Local’s GAIN transition model was instrumental in quickly identifying these shared challenges and discussing approaches. 

The session generated enthusiasm for the SMARTCHAIN-project, the GAIN transition model and Local2Local’s mission, and the involved organizations have followed up with concrete requests for consultation and collaboration.