Rural Catalyst

Overview

We and Rural Design Centre (RDC) worked in partnership as Rural Catalyst to support innovation-led rural economic and community development, funded by the North East Combined Authority.

Together we tackled the challenges facing rural areas through innovation, design, community engagement and knowledge transfer.

The Rural Catalyst collaboration built on previous informal joint working between NICRE and RDC, including co-hosting the Rural Catalyst conferences in the North East in 2021 and 2022.

Opportunities

Innovation workshops

As part of Rural Catalyst, we ran a series of innovation workshops for residents, community organisations, businesses, service providers and local government. Each workshop focused on a key challenge area. Together participants explored the issues and opportunities, and discovered and re-designed new approaches and solutions.

Our first two innovation workshops focussed on health and social care in rural communities and tackling transportation challenges in rural communities.

Hadrian's Wall Design Sprint 2024

Rural Catalyst collaborated with Northumberland Small Business Service and Hadrian’s Wall Partnership to deliver a globally-focussed tourism project. Following two days of development and pitches, Tyne To Summit CIC won the £10,000 prize to implement ideas to convince a younger generation to embrace Hadrian's Wall.

Watch this short film to find out more and see our case study.