Making EU Funding More Accessible: Merill Rural Network Shares Its Experience

Making EU funding available is one thing. Making it accessible is another.

This was one of the key messages emerging from the conference “How does EU funding work for my business in Tourism? Tools, platforms and training resources for tourism businesses of all sizes”, which brought together representatives of European institutions, tourism organisations and funding experts.

Merill Rural Network, an initiative of SEED Projects, was invited to participate as a best-practice example, sharing its experience of accessing and using European funding opportunities.

Representing Merill, Silvia Gilberti delivered a presentation exploring the network's story, its funding journey, the challenges encountered and the lessons learnt along the way. Merill's experience will also be featured in the upcoming EU funding toolkit for tourism businesses.

Funding should respond to real needs

One of the strongest messages from the conference was that projects should be developed around genuine needs, rather than being adapted simply to fit available funding programmes. Put simply: funding works when an organisation approaches schemes as a catalyst for its actions, not as a business financing model.

At the same time, most small tourism organisations are not even considering EU funding opportunities. Let’s be honest: accessing EU funding can be challenging, especially for small tourism businesses operating in marginal areas. Limited resources, complex application procedures and administrative requirements can prevent promising ideas from becoming reality.

The conference highlighted several ways to address these barriers, including simplified funding mechanisms such as cascading vouchers, dedicated training resources, practical guidance and stronger partnerships. Taking advantage of these tools can be effective, but a lot still needs to be done to make funding really accessible. 

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Discussions with EU project evaluators also reinforced the importance of clear objectives, realistic proposals and partnerships built around complementary expertise.

Looking towards more inclusive EU funding

For Merill Rural Network, these discussions strongly resonate with its mission to support rural communities and small tourism operators.

The network's own experience demonstrates how funding can create opportunities for development and innovation. During her presentation, Silvia highlighted how different funds coincided with different moments of Merill’s story, supporting actions that were functional to consolidate steps of its journey: from consolidating the network, to digitalisation and innovation. 

As European funding programmes continue to evolve, the challenge is not simply to make more resources available, but to ensure that smaller organisations have a fair opportunity to benefit from them.

Ultimately, the success of EU funding should be measured not only by the resources distributed, but by the positive impact they create for businesses, communities and territories.