ARISE - Archaeological Routes for Inclusive Synergy & Entrepreneurship in Sierra y Mancha Conquense - has entered its final implementation phase, building on the public prototype already available online at https://arise.xilbi.com/.

Developed in the framework of PoliRuralPlus, ARISE focuses on the Sierra y Mancha Conquense pilot region in Cuenca, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. The project addresses a clear territorial challenge: valuable Roman heritage assets, including Segóbriga, Valeria and Ercávica, are not yet fully connected through a single digital experience capable of supporting visitors, local businesses and territorial stakeholders.

During the project, Obsidian Innovation Institute - Associação and Xilbi Sistemas de Informacion SL have worked to transform this challenge into a practical digital service. The ARISE platform now provides a public entry point where users can explore heritage and tourism assets, identify local businesses, plan routes, access curated news and interact with AI-supported guidance through the ARISE Chat Agent powered by PoliRural Jackdaw.

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The platform is not conceived as a conventional tourism website. Its purpose is broader: to support rural attractiveness, strengthen rural-urban links and provide a digital environment where heritage, local entrepreneurship and stakeholder coordination can be connected in a more coherent way.

In parallel with the public-facing prototype, ARISE has also developed a restricted operational layer for platform administration, content management, integrations, monitoring and stakeholder coordination. This includes the MAAT workspace, designed to support cooperation among municipalities, SMEs, local organisations and territorial actors involved in the pilot area.

The final phase of ARISE is focused on consolidation. Activities now concentrate on refining the platform, strengthening the content base, supporting stakeholder activation, preparing impact and sustainability evidence, and completing the documentation needed for replication. This work is essential to move from a functioning prototype to a more mature pilot service with practical value for the Sierra y Mancha Conquense territory.

ARISE is also contributing to the wider PoliRuralPlus ecosystem by demonstrating how digital tools can support cultural heritage valorisation, rural business visibility and multi-actor territorial governance. The project combines map-based exploration, route planning, local service visibility, AI-supported guidance and collaborative workspace functions in one integrated environment.

As the project approaches completion, the consortium will continue working on validation, usability improvements and preparation of the final reporting package. The objective is to ensure that the experience generated by ARISE can support not only the pilot territory, but also future replication in other rural areas seeking to connect heritage, local services and coordinated development.

The ARISE platform is available at: https://arise.xilbi.com.

Funding acknowledgement PoliRuralPlus has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 101136910. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.