The Scottish Government LEADER team hosted Local Action Group (LAG) User Acceptance Testing (UAT) of the applications stage in early June.

This involved 10 LAG users (Super Users) from seven Local Development Strategy (LDS) areas: North Aberdeenshire, South Aberdeenshire, Argyll & the Islands, Cairngorms, Dumfries & Galloway, Highland and Lanarkshire. We would like to thank everyone who took part in this for their time and valuable input and we are taking forward the feedback and suggestions. 

Application release of LARCs for the seven Super User LAG areas will take place on the week commencing 4 July. LARCs application training will be available on the following dates:

• 27 July
• 28 July
• 3 August
• 4 August
• 10 August
• 11 August

A Doodle Poll has been circulated to coordinators to request details of trainees and select the date they wish to attend.

As part of the evaluation of the previous programme, direct feedback from LEADER beneficiaries is being sought. We are looking for contact details of at least three beneficiaries from each Local Development Strategy area to invite to an evaluation workshop on 24 August in Edinburgh.

Suggested contacts should be sent by LAG Coordinators to the evaluator, Susan Grieve, by 6 July.

The second Accountable Bodies meeting was held on 9 June. The roles and remit of the group were discussed, along with various other aspects including the Service Level Agreement, confidentiality and data sharing, finance and audit. The third meeting is due to be held in October. 

A LAG Chairs meeting was held today, 30 June.

Two Angus LAG members attended Borjomi, Georgia in late June, to continue the project support in developing LEADER-like actions in this remote rural area.

The Borjomi project has just gone live, and are looking forward to assessing and actioning their first applications. Because the whole project now has just one year to run, and a smaller budget than a typical Scottish LAG, all applications are assessed at the start, then staff team help develop approved applications into deliverable projects.

Unlike Scotland, the staff then commission and manage all aspects of delivery on behalf of the applicants – obviously this is LEADER-like, but more importantly reflects the administrative circumstances in Georgia, which is not a full European Union member.

The ENPARD newsletter provides a good insight to the ENPARD Georgia programme, including a profile of the Borjomi project which Angus LEADER support.

The Tyne Esk LEADER Local Action Group (LAG) is launching their programme of funding at twin events and you are welcome to join them:

• Haddington Show on the 2 July at 2pm
• Dalkeith Show on the 9 July at 2pm

Members of the staff team will be present throughout the day to answer any questions.

Our friends at Social Investment Scotland facilitated a workshop at the LEADER conference in March in building community capacity. Workshop participants used the Building Stronger Communities Framework, developed by the Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC) to come up with their own set of top tips for building community capacity. You may find the results captured in the Top tips for community engagement document useful.

A group of individuals and organisations in Eastern Perthshire have added a Cooperation offer to our website. Their project idea is to promote the role of arts, culture and heritage in creating new ways to sustain rural communities socially, economically and environmentally.

You can share your ideas and find partners for LEADER cooperation initiatives on the partner search page of the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD) website.

Local Action Groups interested in undertaking a joint action with another LEADER group or a similar group within an urban or fisheries area – whether in another region, Member State or third country - are encouraged to fill in a cooperation offer template and send it to contact@enrd.eu.

Scotland will be represented at the LEADER Fair for Transnational Cooperation in Estonia on 24 – 26 August 2016 by the Cairngorm and Angus Local Action Groups (LAGs), as well as the Scottish Rural Network.

The program includes partner search activities which offer an exciting opportunity for anyone in Scotland who may have a transnational cooperation idea to identify interest from other LAGS across Europe.

If you have a project idea you would like to share with potential partners at the event please send your idea to Don Morrison, Development Officer at Scottish Rural Network Support Unit, by email to don@ruralnetwork.scot by 8 August.