SMART-CSA – Future-Oriented Training for Urban & Peri-Urban Farming
SMART-CSA an Erasmus+ KA220-VET cooperation project running from September 2025 to February 2028. The project brings together eight partner organisations from six European countries. Its aim is to strengthen vocational education and training for urban and peri-urban agriculture by integrating Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), permaculture, and smart technologies.
Cities are no longer merely places of consumption. They are increasingly becoming spaces of production, learning, and innovation. Urban and peri-urban agriculture has the potential to provide healthy food, create green jobs, and strengthen communities. Realising this potential, however, requires new skills that combine traditional farming knowledge with digital tools, research, and sustainable design.
SMART-CSA addresses this need by building a research-based knowledge foundation for sustainable urban and peri-urban agriculture. The project brings together literature and policy reviews, field-based data, and stakeholder perspectives from across Europe. On this basis, it develops digital training resources, microlearning-based learning modules, and practice-oriented training pathways.
At the heart of the project is learning by doing. Alongside digital learning environments, SMART-CSA offers opportunities for field-based learning, pilot activities, and hands-on demonstrations. The project also creates spaces for dialogue and knowledge exchange through events, workshops, and webinars, fostering cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
In the long term, SMART-CSA envisions a Europe in which urban and peri-urban agriculture is an integral part of sustainable food systems, climate resilience, and local self-reliance — supported by vocational education and training that is concrete, practical, and grounded in real-world experience.
Project objectives:
- Establish an evidence base on sustainable urban/peri-urban agriculture via research, policy review, field data, and stakeholder mapping.
- Integrate smart technologies into permaculture/CSA for eco-resilient farming.
- Enhance digital skills in agri-food with EU-standard microlearning and field-based training.
- Develop a hands-on training and certification framework for sustainable agri competencies.
- Disseminate outcomes via strategic stakeholder engagement and knowledge mobilization.
The role of Finland in the project
Finland is represented in the SMART-CSA project by Vihreä Pourusmäki ry, which brings hands-on expertise in permaculture and sustainable agriculture to the consortium. We are involved in all phases of the project: contributing to research and stakeholder engagement, organising field visits and an expert seminar, and co-developing training materials together with the other project partners.
Finland’s key responsibility lies in Work Package 4, which focuses on practical field-based demonstrations. These activities test and showcase Smart CSA solutions in real-life settings. Through its participation, Finland brings a northern and applied perspective to the project, supporting the overall aim of SMART-CSA to develop training pathways that are sustainable, practical, and transferable to different contexts.
Project partners
- University of Peloponnese (Greece)
- Agraren Universitet – Plovdiv (Bulgaria)
- Regional Development Agency Backa Ltd. (Serbia)
- Syncnify (France)
- Olympiaki Ekpaideftiki kai Symvouleftiki EPE (Greece)
- Vihreä Pourusmäki ry (Finland)
- PA Partners for Skills Development (Cyprus)
Project coordinator
- Coopérative d’activité et d’emploi Terra Sud (France)
Project duration
- 01 September 2025 – 29 February 2028 (30 months)
Funding programme
- Erasmus+ Programme, KA220-VET
Total project budget
- €400,000
