Concluding words

With the beginning of November 2010, the RuDI project has reached its end. Since February 2008, ten teams from all over Europe had worked enthusiastically on the project. The research aimed to enhance our understanding of the social, institutional and capacity-building effects of the different components of rural development policies at both national and regional levels within the 2007 to 2013 programming period, and to identify factors that lead to failure, as well as to learn from best practice examples. The RuDI project looked beyond the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (CMEF) provided by the EU taking into account the rural development policy cycle as a whole by focusing on the governance structures surrounding design (context of the conception of instruments and operational modes), delivery (modes of transaction and control) and evaluation (timing, procedures etc.).

This website provides the interested reader with all the relevant information on the project and makes available all of the documents (deliverables, country reports etc.) which have been produced throughout the project.

The ten RuDI teams would like to thank the European Commission, especially DG Research and Innovation, who supported us throughout the whole process. The members of RuDI’s International Expert Group have contributed to the research providing their valuable comments and suggestions. A lot of institutions and individuals have supported us in our research activities in many different ways – thank you.