The following tasks shall be carried out within the framework of this applied research activity: ask 1: Research framework and data collection.The common standard of ESPON applied research activities is the delivery of pan-European comparative analyses. To achieve this, Task 1 should therefore be broken down into two key sub-tasks as follows: (a) Develop, through a comprehensive and systematic review of the literature, a theoretical and conceptual understanding of rural shrinkage. There exists a wealth of significant research literatures on the phenomenon of urban shrinkage and this literature should be thoroughly reviewed to examine the extent to which its theoretical concepts and analytic frameworks can be transferred to the rural sphere 22. This should be complemented by a wider review of apposite academic and policy literature. The ESPON Programme has also previously published several studies of relevance to this topic which should be comprehensively reviewed to build on their results, harness complementarities and avoid overlaps. Examples include: EDORA (European Development Opportunities in Rural Areas); PURR (Potential of Rural Regions); GEOSPECS (Geographic Specificities and Development Potentials in Europe); ECR2 (Economic Crisis and Resilience of Regions) and, PROFECY (Inner Peripheries: National territories facing challenges of access to basic services of general interest). Forthcoming relevant project also include URRUC (Improving Urban-Rural connectivity in Non-Metropolitan Regions).(b) Produce a conceptual and methodological framework for collecting quantitative data to arrive at a set of indicators that will assist in mapping and analysing rural shrinkage at European scale. This will require mobilising a practical and workable set of demographic, economic and environmental indicators to identify geographic trends in rural shrinkage at pan-European scale. A key part of this task is, therefore, the compilation of data and data sources, that the research intends to use to develop indicators and for carrying out the analysis. The analysis of the data and categorisation should result in systematic and generalisable typologies for identifying shrinking rural regions in Europe, in different geographic contexts, and for classifying rural regions ‘at risk’ of shrinkage. Data should be collected at national and regional (NUTS 3) level as much as possible covering the pre- and post- global financial crisis period (post-2001). In addition to established socio-economic data sources with pan-European Eurostat (or other) coverage, the research should also examine the usability and applicability of less-conventional indicators (e.g. quality of life indicators etc.). It is acknowledged that data challenges may be likely to arise in operationalising this research. In this context, it is important to frame data within a robust theoretical and conceptual understanding as specified in Task 1(a). It is also important to develop a proactive approach to troubleshoot challenges in relation to data collection, data harmonisation, missing data and data estimation. To overcome such data gaps, the development of new models, or applying existing models to estimate missing values, should be applied, including building upon existing ESPON studies (as described above). The ESPON M4D project has also explored various approaches to estimate regional data by disaggregation which could be taken as a possible. Prospective service providers should put forward, in their tender offer, a succinct outline of the integrated quantitative and qualitative methods proposed to be used to achieve the objectives of this research, with a focus on innovative and efficient methods, in response to the issues to be addressed in Task 1. Task 2: Case Studies. To bridge data gaps and possible weak comparability, produce a better interpretative understanding of the potential consequences for territorial governance in shrinking rural regions and for better capitalisation of knowledge, the quantitative analysis should be complemented with in-depth analysis from practical case studies. This qualitative analysis should include desktop research of secondary data sources and conducting interviews with key policy actors, stakeholders (including civil society and non-governmental organisations etc.) and academics/researchers at supra-national, national and regional scale to gain a more complete, rich and interpretative understanding of the research phenomenon under investigation.Eight (8) case studies, composing different types of European regions shall be selected with the aim to gather in-depth evidence from the perspective of policy actors and other stakeholders in respect of, inter alia: (i) ongoing trends affecting rural development at global, European and national scale; (ii) territorial dynamics and explanatory factors driving these trends; and (iii) various national/regional/local initiatives launched to address these trends, and their impacts on thes