The talent-matching platform is the first Irish business to get involved in the EU’s Start-up Village scheme to promote rural regeneration.
Abodoo has been selected by the European Commission to work on a project that aims to connect talent in small, regional areas across Europe.
Founded in 2018, Abodoo is a remote talent-matching platform for recruiters and jobseekers. It will work on the project as part of the European Commission’s Start-up Village initiative alongside an initial 24 villages this year.
It is the first Irish company to be chosen for the initiative.
Abodoo will help the villages adjust to the new world of work, showing employers how to attract remote workers and create investment and sustainable jobs.
It is developing an interactive talent map for each village containing key information and insights needed to attract remote workers, create jobs and support rural regeneration.
Vanessa Tierney, CEO and co-founder of Abodoo, said she was “so delighted to have been chosen by the European Commission” for the initiative. She thanked those who helped and supported the company through the long selection process, adding: “We cannot wait to get started!”
The Start-up Village Forum was launched by the European Commission in November last year to gather insights on the challenges faced by rural start-up communities. The initiative’s overall aim is to boost the growth of remote towns and villages by connecting them with talent and opportunities, and creating hubs for entrepreneurship and rural innovation.
It is part of the EU’s long-term vision for rural areas, launched in June 2021.
Mariya Gabriel, European commissioner for innovation, research, culture, education and youth, said at the launch of the Start-up Village initiative last year that the “nature and sources of innovation are changing” and “connecting all actors wherever they are – including rural areas – matters more now than ever before”.
Dubravka Šuica, VP of the European Commission for demography and democracy, added that the project was “a reflection of the importance that the Commission attaches to supporting rural areas, because it is in rural areas that the demographic transition is most visible.”
She added that the EU wants “the best and brightest of Europe to remain” in these areas and “contribute to building prosperity as they grow their start-up companies to real long-term drivers of our economy, all while using the natural potential of Europe’s rural areas.”
To avail of Abodoo’s project to help rural remote workers and employers across Europe, each village should have a maximum of 15,000 living there as well as a co-working space with internet access and a clear vision for what they hope to achieve through participation.
More information about registering for the initiative is available on Abodoo’s Start-up Village pledge website.
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