CLOE will be an interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral Doctoral Programme developed and coordinated by the University of Genoa, as sole beneficiary, in collaboration with a network of host academic and non-academic organisations. UNIGE will recruit 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs, no PhD and less than 4 years FTE research experience), respecting mobility rules of MSCA. CLOE training is focused on multidisciplinary approaches to mountain and rural sustainable development and conservation starting from historical, environmental and legal perspectives. It will support top-tier ESRs working on 4 closely related topics: mountain areas and heritagisation processes (T1); mountain conservation, cultural landscapes and conflicts (T2); coming back to the mountains (T3); mountain areas and environmental risks (T4). <br/>The 15 ESRs will be enrolled in 11 doctoral courses involved in CLOE through 2 calls for applications: the first cohort of 7 ESRs will start on November 1, 2021, while the second of 8 ESRs on November 1, 2022. <br/>A rich and diversified range of training opportunities will allow to broaden the cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary skills of a new generation of early-stage researchers (ESRs) and provide a common ground for their future careers and for new research paths with important implications for sustainable development and environmental and cultural conservation. UniGE, the university of Liguria, with campuses in the major cities of the Region and one of the most important of Northern Italy, is particularly qualified to conduct CLOE due to the previous and on-going projects of the involved supervisors. The doctoral programme will make it possible to network existing doctoral schools that deal with subjects related to mountain areas from different perspectives, and will be the first step in the development of a new Strategic Centre on Mountain and Rural areas (MORA) that will deal with their new centrality.