We focus on three interconnecting activities. 

1. We fill gaps in our current knowledge of rural enterprise and innovation. We achieve this by undertaking and commissioning new research.
2. We develop practical solutions with businesses, rural communities and economic development agencies. They show new approaches to rural innovation that we can scale up to solve problems and realise new opportunities.
3. We provide evidence to influence better policy and support for rural businesses. 

• Enabling a step change in the national rural economy evidence base through our major rural business surveys and State of Rural Enterprise (SORE) Reports covering rising costs, skills and labour availability and the climate emergency, alongside opportunities for growth.  

• Informing regional and national policy by demonstrating how rural firms and farms are adapting through an ever-changing business environment and complementing our evidence with first-hand insights of rural firms through a series of videos. 

• Informing the investment priorities of local and combined authorities, such as the new North East Combined Authority in relation to its Environment, Coast and Rural priority area. 

• Catalysing innovation by working with partners on a series of testbed projects: 

• Helping communities transition to net zero and become more energy resilient: solar-powered community buildings 

• Tackling digital exclusion in hard-to-reach areas: Rural Northumberland Digital Inclusion project.