Rural Digital Economy Research Hub

英国农村地区有相当大的未开发经济潜力。仅在英格兰，据估计每年至少有3.4亿美元。Burgess(2008)给出的主要原因是，高水平的农村商业抱负没有付诸实践，现有的创业没有充分发挥其创造财富的潜力。他敦促政府认识到，实现这一潜力的主要方法是启动新形式的信息网络，以转移知识、分享良好做法、与更广泛的市场、决策过程和创造更多的“群众”专业知识。通过在阿伯丁大学创建农村数字经济中心，我们建议应对这一关键的政策挑战，并通过针对英国农村关键经济活动的主题和项目，利用数字技术来实现这一尚未开发的农村经济潜力。农村地区具有特殊的特点，为这类活动带来了特殊的问题：例如，人口少且往往分散；信息流动渠道狭窄而不均衡，包括获取基于数字的信息往往相对有限；以及人口结构和经济活动基础的快速变化。数字技术将在释放英国农村地区经济中尚未开发的潜力方面发挥重要作用。通过使用创新灵活的“数字工作”方式，农村企业和社区可以在其社会、经济和环境资本的基础上创造新的财富、就业和社会机会。作为我们的合作伙伴，阿伯丁大学的农村数字经济研究中心将与社区、企业和政策制定者在旅游、医疗保健、可访问性、自然资源保护以及企业和文化方面开展合作，利用我们在信息技术应用、农村经济和社会方面的广泛专业知识，在英国各地的农村社区和企业发起创新项目。我们将从一开始就吸收合作伙伴的反馈并采取行动，设计和完善满足商业需求的数字解决方案。我们将与合作伙伴一起评估我们为农村经济和影响英国农村地区福祉的政策部门带来最大利益的工作。英国农村地区可以通过以用户为主导、以精心设计的方式应用数字技术，在经济、社会和环境方面更加可持续：我们将利用我们与农村合作伙伴的专业知识来实现这一雄心壮志。参考：伯吉斯，2008，英国农村地区--释放其经济潜力的步骤。切尔滕纳姆农村社区委员会。

There is considerable untapped economic potential in rural areas of the UK. In England alone this is estimated to be worth at least 340 million per year. Burgess (2008) gives as principal reasons for this that high levels of rural business aspiration do not find their way into practice, and that existing entrepreneurship does not fully reach its potential in wealth creation. He urges that Government recognise that key ways of realising this potential are to initiate new forms of information networks for the transfer of knowledge, the sharing of good practice, and engagement with wider markets, policy-making processes, and for the creation of larger 'masses' of expertise. By the creation of a Rural Digital Economy Hub at the University of Aberdeen we propose to take up this key challenge for policy and to employ digital technology to realise this untapped rural economic potential, through themes and projects targeted at key economic activities in the rural UK. Rural areas have specific characteristics that create particular problems for these types of activities: for example, small and often dispersed populations; narrow and uneven channels of information flow, including often relatively restricted access to digitally-based information; and rapid change in population structures and economic activity bases.Digital technology will play a major role in releasing untapped potential in the economies of rural areas in the UK. By using innovative flexible ways of 'digital working', rural businesses and communities can build on their social, economic and environmental capital to generate new wealth, employment and social opportunities. Working with communities, businesses and policy-makers on initiatives in tourism, healthcare, accessibility, conservation of natural resources, and enterprise and culture as our partners, the University of Aberdeen's Rural Digital Economy Research Hub will use our extensive expertise in information technology applications, rural economy and society, to initiate innovative projects in rural communities and businesses across the UK.We will, from the outset, incorporate and act on feedback from our partners to design and refine digital solutions to business needs. We will, with partners, evaluate our work to maximise benefits for rural economies and for the policy sectors affecting the well-being of the UK's rural areas.Rural areas of the UK can, through the user-led application of digital technology in carefully designed ways, be more economically, socially and environmentally sustainable: we will harness our expertise with rural partners to realise this ambition. ReferenceBurgess, S., 2008, England's rural areas - steps to release their economic potential. Commission for Rural Communities, Cheltenham.