On 27 April 2026, the Slovak DIGIFABS Impact Workshop took place at the Office of the Žilina Self-Governing Region, bringing together 32 participants from across the region’s innovation and rural development landscape. Representatives attended from the Žilina Self-Governing Region, MIRRI regional structures, Local Action Groups from Dolný Liptov, Horný Liptov and Turiec, municipal associations, national ministries, the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra and the Institute of Landscape Ecology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
Unlike a standalone project session, this workshop was embedded within a broader regional policy roundtable focused on rural transformation. The setting proved instructive. Rather than assessing DigiFaBs purely as a training programme for students or SMEs, participants examined its relevance as a contributor to regional strategy, digital readiness and food system innovation across rural Slovakia.
Value beyond the individual SME
Discussion centred on the project’s capacity to connect education, digital skills, entrepreneurship and rural transformation. Participants noted that Slovak rural areas face demographic decline, limited innovation capacity and uneven digital readiness among small businesses. DigiFaBs, with its emphasis on applied, case-based learning, was seen as well suited to these conditions, provided its outputs are adapted for audiences beyond academic circles.
Local Action Groups as a transfer mechanism
A recurring theme was the role of Local Action Groups as intermediaries. Given their established relationships with municipalities, farms and food producers, LAGs were identified as a practical channel for extending DigiFaBs outputs to rural stakeholders who would not otherwise engage with a university-led programme. Participants also pointed to the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra as a natural home for embedding challenge-based learning into ongoing teaching activity.
Barriers requiring attention
Participants were candid about the obstacles ahead. Digital readiness varies considerably across the region, rural development support remains fragmented, and many agri-food actors operate with limited time and staff. A further barrier is the gap between academic language and practical local need: outputs developed at European level can appear too general for immediate use in a Slovak village or family business.
A framework for the years ahead
The workshop closed with a clear set of recommendations: localise materials with Slovak examples, work through Local Action Groups as dissemination partners, pilot a shorter and more focused version of the challenge-based model, and link DigiFaBs explicitly to the region’s 2040 rural development vision.
Taken together, the Žilina discussion confirmed that DigiFaBs has relevance well beyond the classroom or the SME challenge. Its greatest potential in Slovakia lies in acting as a practical bridge between education, digital skills and long-term rural transformation.