Ricardo Fortuoso, president of AEICE, and Beatriz Alonso, manager of the Duero Douro- Heritage for Development initiative, collected the award for the Best Local Development Initiative of Castile and León in its modality of economic development. It was granted by the Association of Local Development Professionals of Castilla y León (ADELCYL), that highlighted the quality of the Duero Douro 2015-20130 Strategic Plan.

This distinction implies valuing local development policies as an instrument for achieving equitable, harmonious, sustainable and global socio-economic development.

The Duero Douro initiative, developed by AEICE, is a reality thanks to its promoters and collaborators: Fundación Santa María La Real del Patrimonio Histórico, Patrimonio Inteligente, Coca Restauraciones, Decolesa, Urbyplan, José Santos Torres and Museo del Vino Pagos del Rey. It promotes collaboration between private and public agents and society, with the aim of achieving an active and dynamic axis of socio-economic development for the territory, based on the enhancement of its cultural heritage. At the same time, work is being done on the integration of the natural, enogastronomic and social heritage, in a joint action that adds value to this territory and contributes to positioning on the global scale.

Through this initiative, different projects are being carried out. Among others: the Education and Heritage Plan (in collaboration with the Heritage Education Observatory in Spain and the University of Valladolid), the Flumen Durius Project for the promotion and valorisation of the tourist resources of the Duero River, the H2020 Ruritage project, that develops a new heritage-led rural regeneration paradigm aimed at transforming rural areas in sustainable development demonstration laboratories, or the Wine & Senses Project, with the objective of stimulating the competitiveness of the tourist industry by developing innovative products based on wine and the senses.