Highlands_3 is a brand dedicated to promoting sustainable development in mountain areas. Their goal is to contribute to Inclusive Sustainable Development in Highlands (ISDH) through collective and impact-driven Research & Innovation (R&I). They achieve this by engaging in capacity building, sharing local-global knowledge, experiences, and tools.

Highlands_3 facilitates a co-innovation process through secondments and research and innovative sessions (R&IS), involving public/private and non-academic partners. By doing so, they bridge the gap between research and development and build a shared vision of ISDH. To achieve their objectives, Highlands_3 organizes their activities into five integrated work packages (WP): Coordination & management, Methodology & capacity building for ISDH, Analysis, comparison and modeling of ISDH, Building a multi-actor ISDH Decision-Support Platform (DSP), and Communication, Dissemination & Exploitation of results.

With a network of 41 institutions, including 30 partners from Europe, Highlands_3 promotes exchange and collaboration among participants. Through 8 successive R&IS, they encourage experimentation with practice and focus on various aspects of sustainable highland development. Additionally, long-term secondments are implemented to train researchers and practitioners on specific issues identified by the consortium.

The collected data on ISDHs will be stored in an online collaborative and interactive decision-support platform, which will be transferred to existing mountain networks. Highlands_3 is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, highlighting their commitment to sustainable development in mountain areas