The Innovation Hub is a strategic division of Perrotis College, part of the historic American Farm School (AFS)—an independent, nonprofit educational institution founded in 1904 to serve Greece and the wider Balkan region. AFS encompasses a comprehensive educational ecosystem, including a Primary School, Middle and High Schools, and Perrotis College, which offers undergraduate, postgraduate, adult education, and extension programs.

Established in 1996, Perrotis College addresses the growing demand for higher education in agriculture, environmental science, food systems, and related fields. Through a strong emphasis on experiential learning, innovation, and sustainability, the College equips students to become responsible leaders in their communities and industries.

The Innovation Hub serves as the project development and management arm of Perrotis College and AFS. It identifies funding opportunities, offers consulting services, coordinates proposal development, and implements strategic projects in the agri-food and regional development sectors.

Acting as an innovation intermediary, the Hub builds strong collaborations with faculty, researchers, industry stakeholders, and external partners. It specializes in projects that apply advanced technologies to agricultural practices, adding value across the supply chain and bringing Greek producers closer to the next agricultural revolution.

The Hub manages a wide portfolio of initiatives, including:

->   EU co-funded programs
->   National development programs
->   Private funding schemes
->   Regional agri-food entrepreneurship centers

With a deep-rooted commitment to sustainability, regional development, and real-world impact, the Innovation Hub leads with purpose, transforming innovation into action across the agricultural and food systems landscape.

Prinzessinnengarten (PZG) is considered to be one of the leading Community Gardens (CGs) in Europe, based on the longevity of their initiative (started in 2009), its holistic strategies that emphasize both social and ecological objectives, high number of participants and visitors it attracts, and the number of spin-off projects it has generated in Germany and beyond.

Prinzessinnengarten also is an international reference in bottom-up CG co-creation and comanagement and has collaborated extensively with an extremely wide range of stakeholders, ranging from cultural institutions, universities and research institutions, but also as a site for community-based political debates and sustainability workshops. As such, it is a strong voice for CGs that reflect their societies and communities and set the agenda for local agendas.

In 2009, the PZG was founded via the Nomadisch Grün gGmbH on Moritzplatz in Kreuzberg, as a community garden and learning space on a former wasteland in the middle of the city. The almost 6000m² area not only contained countless raised beds, but also open workshops, urban bee colonies, a garden café, a learning kitchen for processing local harvests and space for markets, workshops and networking meetings for committed people interested in participatory and sustainable urban design.

PZG is thus a hub for lifelong learning and environmental education. As the PZG was conceived as a mobile urban garden from the outset, the garden has now moved its activities to a new location in Neukölln after 10 years in Kreuzberg. Here, we are establishing a new form of community garden on parts of the New St. Jacobi Cemetery, thereby supporting the possibility of preserving this site as a publicly accessible green space.

At 7.5 hectares, this new site is very large and close to nature, and the community garden is located in the middle of this natural space that has grown over 100 years. Here we are trying to let the garden grow together in harmony with the needs of all users. Currently there are 31 part-time employees in the Prinzessinnengarten Kollektiv. The main tasks of the collective include gardening, environmental education and gastronomy. In figures approx. 50,000 visitors/year, approx. 6,000 participants/ year. PZG has co-initiated over 160 municipal and 60 school gardens in recent years through our external gardening and education programs.

University of South Bohemia, Faculty of Agriculture and Technology

The University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice is a modern public university located in the historic city of České Budějovice, Czech Republic. Founded in 1991, it has grown into a respected academic institution with a strong focus on research and interdisciplinary education. The university comprises eight faculties, offering a wide range of programs in natural sciences, humanities, social sciences, health, and agriculture. Known for its close connection to the region and emphasis on sustainability and innovation, the university serves over 9,000 students across 200 different study programs and plays a key role in the intellectual and cultural life of South Bohemia.

The Faculty of Agriculture and Technology, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice (FAT USB), is a modern faculty with a long tradition dating back to 1960. In 1991, the Faculty of Agriculture operated as one of the founding faculties that were at birth of the newly developing University of South Bohemia. The faculty buildings are located in a pleasant environment of the university campus on the western outskirts of České Budějovice.

The FAT USB provides education at all levels of study, i.e. in Bachelor’s, follow-up Master’s and Doctoral study programs. Animal Husbandry, Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Land Consolidation and Real Estate Conveyancing or Agribusiness rank among the most popular study programs. Other interesting study programs with fewer students include Agroecology, Agriculture, Agricultural Biotechnology or Quality and Processing of Agricultural Products. All study programs are accredited in a full-time form, while others are offered in a combined form of study.

The focus of the faculty’s scientific and research activities is on agriculture, natural and social sciences, agroecology, engineering and development of new technologies, biotechnology, chemistry, quality and processing of agricultural products or landscape management. Another important activity is the intensive cooperation between the Faculty and the business sector in the areas of consultancy and contracted research. The majority of research activities carried out by the FAT USB is therefore strongly oriented at applied research with benefits for society.

University of Oradea, Faculty of Environmental Protection

The mission of the University of Oradea is to promote knowledge, research and training through partnerships between teachers, students and community. With over 50 years of continuous higher education, the University of Oradea currently counts 20,000 students and about 1,000 academic staff with a total of 123 undergraduate study programs and 151 post-graduate specialization degrees.

In the last 22 years, the University answered the changes that occurred within the national- educational policy, demographic changes, requirements of the market economy, local and regional needs and new technologies. The University of Oradea has 15 faculties within which the Faculty of Environmental Protection hosts the specializations of Agriculture, Horticulture, Landscape Architecture, Food science and Food technology, Animal Husbandry, Environmental Engineering, Forestry, Forest Engineering, Wood Processing and Agri-tourism.

Professors and students from the Faculty of Environmental Protection are involved in several practical activities specific to agriculture, animal husbandry, food science and tourism-related sector: production of organic food products, farm and pension management, marketing of agri-food products, international summer schools promoting ecological tourism.

The Faculty of Environmental Protection has its own farm where the students attending the study programs in Agriculture, Horticulture, Food Science, Landscape Architecture, Animal Husbandry and Agri-tourism have the possibility to undertake practical activities. The educational farm has a few hectares with fruits trees, strawberries, black berries, vines but also several tunnels with vegetables and flowers.  In the facilities of the farm, there is a small area organized for animals where the students can have several related activities.

Other practical activities are developed in specialized laboratories (gastronomy, dairy products, pastry, meat products, additives, etc), continuous joint activities with local companies, workshops on wine and food tasting, but also in specific national and international contests having in view innovation  in food products (e.g. Innovativa), etc. Several activities have been developed with associations of farmers from Oradea and our region on topics such as: agri-food products, sustainable agriculture, organic agriculture, wine production, traditional gastronomy etc.