Boosting AGRIfood And CULTural Entrepreneurship in rural areas

<< Background >>The AGRICULT consortium applied for this project for two reasons: first, it decided to offer innovative material that boost agrifood and cultural entrepreneurship in rural areas, and second, to do so, instead of creating new material, it decided to stop research waste and creatively use and upcycle the results of EU funded projects in the fields of agrifood and cultural entrepreneurship. The needs that the project corresponded to, were: i) the demand for inspiring material that combines agrifood and cultural entrepreneurship in the partner countries, and, ii) the fact that a wealth of resources have been produced from EU funded projects, but not many initiatives that bring them together in a comprehensive format exist. Also, the AGRICULT consortium was constructed in a way to facilitate not only the best utilization of each partner’s expertise, but also the transfer of knowledge and experience from the highly experienced organisations (CP, UNIMC, CG) to the newcomer (QUALIA). In this way, the consortium addressed the need for encouraging diversity, offering capacity building opportunities and fostering new collaborations. << Objectives >>The AGRICULT project set five objectives: i) promote EU projects’ best practices regarding agri-food & cultural heritage entrepreneurship through extensive research and their creative utilization. In this way the results of EU funded projects take a new dimension and become more approachable to various target groups; ii) promote co-creation practices and make the project’s beneficiaries central part of the creating process of the material, so the project’s final result is what the target groups need in terms of content and design; iii) create an innovative and inspiring toolkit on agri-food & cultural heritage entrepreneurship, with a clear environmental focus that boosts extroversion of EU agri-food products from rural and regional areas; iv) promote synergies of entrepreneurs active in the fields of Agri-food and Cultural Heritage entrepreneurship on a pan European level and establish a network with potential to support future activities, individuals, organisations and new projects in the fields of agrifood and cultural entrepreneurship; v) increase awareness regarding research waste and the importance of locally sourced agrifood products, and promote diets that are healthy and environmentally friendly. << Implementation >>AGRICULT implemented the following activities:Project Management included: kick off meeting, short management workshop from the more experience partners to QUALIA and one online meeting per month; quality, risk management and impact monitoring plans; a shared Google Drive. AGRICULT Innovative Toolkit included: general research on EU funded projects in agrifood and cultural entrepreneurship; finalization of the 60 projects for examination; creation of the review template; thorough research of selected projects; filling of the review template and findings report; one workshop in each country presenting the findings and co-create the toolkit along with the target group; creation of the final AGRICULT toolkit including results from EU funded projects and enriched with case studies and other resources in English, Greek, Italian and Spanish. Dissemination campaign included: Communication & dissemination strategy and action plan; creation of social media channels; dissemination log for each partner; creation of website; activity in social media; presentation of the project in relevant activities. << Results >>The concrete outputs and other results of AGRICULT are the following:The AGRICULT review template containing results of 60 EU funded projects in the fields of Agrifood and Cultural Entrepreneurship One workshop in each partner country actively engaging the target groups in the creation of the AGRICULT toolkit.ACRICULT toolkit including results from EU funded projects and enriched with case studies and other resources in English, Greek, Italian and Spanish.AGRICULT Website and social media channelsEstablishment of the First European network on Agrifood and Cultural Entrepreneurship