D.2.1.2 - PP6 Community Workshop at PISMO – Business Incubator: Co‑Creating Practical Solutions for Better Rural Living

In June, Danube4Rural.com PP6 Regional Development Agency SIMORA hosted a community workshop at PISMO – Business Incubator of Sisak-Moslavina County, in Novska (Croatia), bringing together representatives of local and regional public authorities, educational and cultural institutions, and local businesses.

What the community validated 💬

A clear message emerged: building on Novska's existing innovation ecosystem. The PISMO Incubator, entrepreneurship-support institutions, and the City Tourist Board, to create one integrated welcome and support package for remote workers, rather than building new structures.

Key community‑endorsed directions 🌱

🏡 Housing

Feasibility was rated low, held back by a housing shortage, high rental and purchase prices, and unresolved property-related legal issues. The community favoured practical, low-cost fixes: applying the national affordable-housing model used for residents who lost their homes in the December 2020 earthquake.

🌳 Green & environmental policies

Rated moderately feasible. Neglected land and under-organised agricultural cooperatives were named as the main barriers, while Novska's many family farms and their cooperative associations were seen as the strongest local asset.

🫶 Well-being, recreation & culture

The remote worker welcome programme scored high feasibility, with ideas ranging from a digital "help-desk" avatar developed with the PISMO Incubator to stronger cycling trails, fitness paths and therapeutic horseback riding. Long-term financing and ownership beyond the project's funding period was flagged as the main open question.

💻 Digital & co-working infrastructure

Feasibility was moderate - less a matter of physical space, since PISMO already offers virtual offices and coworking capacity, than of activating local entrepreneurial initiative. Participants proposed working with the Novska Public Open University and business-support institutions to encourage collaboration, and investing in marketing.

🎓 Public services & social infrastructure

This category scored lowest, weighed down by the cost of transport and healthcare infrastructure and fragmented planning across governance levels. Participants called for public transport to be written into regional strategic documents, better connections to nearby towns such as Sisak and Kutina, and closer coordination between transport and healthcare planning.

Participants agreed that coordinated, partnership-based action - combining affordable-housing measures, reuse of agricultural and green land, a welcome and well-being programme, and greater visibility for existing digital infrastructure - is the way to make Novska a genuinely attractive place to live and work remotely, with the PISMO Incubator and the City of Novska positioned to coordinate the next steps together with the Tourist Board and the Public University.