The kick-off meeting of the ECOPRISE project, of which CEI-Iscte is a partner, took place in Palermo on 20 and 21 March. This meeting was a time for the team to focus on the strong innovative nature of the project, along with the aim of creating a replicable product that can be adapted to other contexts.

The main aim of the project is to create a new professional figure, the ecovillage designer, capable of combining the principles of ecology and the sustainability of ecovillages with the entrepreneurial spirit. Their advice can be sought both by an ecovillage seeking greater integration into the market and by an agricultural entrepreneur looking for more sustainable and collective environmental practices.

The consortium’s efforts are aimed at defining practices and knowledge that integrate the cultural diversity of EU countries. From Palermo to Vilnius, ecovillage models are many and diverse, each rooted in its local reality. The project’s challenge is precisely to develop a model that can respond to the economic, social and environmental needs of each of these realities.

The first step will be to carry out extensive mapping and empirical research to discover local ecovillages and their associated educational facilities. This will be done in 6 countries, with the help of 12 partner organisations. These are the first steps, but perhaps the most important, as they will define the content of the training course for designers that the project will create at a later stage.

The ECOPRISE social networks will soon be activated, where you can follow all the project’s updates and its future steps.

ECOPRISE – Future-oriented social entrepreneurship through Ecovillage Design is a project funded by Programma Erasmus+ Azione Chiave 2: Partenariati per l’innovazione – Alliances 2023.

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