The presentation has taken place this Thursday 27 February at the Magna Room in La Nau Cultural Centre. The newsletter gathers conferences of the I Universidad de Verano de Aras de los Olmos (UVAO, Summer University of Aras de los Olmos) about science and rural development that took place in summer 2018.

The Vice-principal for Territorial Projection and Society, Jorge Hermosilla; the General Director of Local Administration of the Valencian government, Antoni Such; Juan Pablo Peñarrubia, head of Innovation of the Provincial Council of Valencia; the Mayor of Aras de los Olmos, Rafael Giménez; and Emilio Soria, director of the 1st edition of UVAO have participated in the celebration.

The newsletter 'Innovation and artificial intelligence at the service of rural development' is made up of 14 texts that gather the ideas shared at that Summer University. Politicians, university professors and entrepreneurs at the forefront of these processes - industry, tourism, collaborative economy, agricultural sector or social services - tell us through their texts the practical application of these new technologies at the service of rural development.

Vice-principal Jorge Hermosilla emphasized the collaboration between the Universitat, the City Council of Aras de los Olmos, the Provincial Council of Valencia and Caixa Popular, which made it possible to hold the UVAO and to publish this newsletter. "The Universitat de València, faithful to its humanist and universal values, wants to be a generator of knowledge applied to our mountain and inland villages, a speaker of the wealth and potential that they amass to jointly promote a sustainable development," said the vice-principal.

The General Director of Local Administration of the Valencian government, Antoni Such, explained that "the resolution of the serious problem of depopulation requires measures from the public authorities, but also from the citizens themselves in fields such as the creation of companies, self-employment, new business niches, which supported by public policies help the population to take root in the municipalities of the interior".

For his part, the Head of Innovation of the Provincial Council of Valencia, Juan Pablo Peñarrubia, stressed the need to establish instruments of collaboration between the administrations and social agents involved, aiming at developing a programme that reaches all the problems caused by depopulation from a comprehensive perspective.

The Mayor of Aras de los Olmos has thanked the effort of the University, the Provincial Council and the Valencian government and has defended that the rural population of the mountainous interior of the Valencian Community, need even more support, "positive discrimination policies are needed to achieve the return of investments and people to these places". "We want people who take control of their future, who generate growth from their resources and who are not dependent, but quite the opposite, who are the protagonists of their development", stated Rafael Giménez.

Professor Emilio Soria pointed out that Aras de los Olmos "is a referent for new processes of innovation and development at a national and international level, which has been able to show the value of all its material and human resources at the service of progress and the welfare of people. Among other achievements, and as a result of its innovative approach, it is becoming the first municipality in Spain to be self-sufficient in renewable energies 365 days a year".