Euracademy Association is a non-profit European membership organisation established in 2004, with headquarters in Athens, Greece. Euracademy’s vision is to promote capacity building in rural areas through lifelong learning and transfer of good practice and cooperation between different actors of rural development in the EU. The Association has members from over 20 European countries including, universities, research institutions, academics, policy makers, social partners, local development managers and others. The Association has conducted a multiplicity of activities, including regular face-to-face learning in 15 annual summer academies, e-learning courses, publication of over 16 books, networking, research, project work, and has organised numerous conferences. Euracademy has also designed the curriculum of a Mastersdegree course for “Animators of Rural Development” to be delivered online, jointly by seven universities-members of Euracademy.

The Euracademy network carries the experience of 13 years of developing and implementing capacity building and lifelong learning initiatives for sustainable rural development across Europe, taking an integrated approach to rural development, i.e. considering all the different sides of development and the different routes that can be used to achieve a sustainable future. Themes that Euracademy has dealt with in its annual summer academies include:  Rural Tourism, Information society, Diversification of Rural Economies, Social Capital, Education and Lifelong Learning,  Culture, Environment, Sustainable Agriculture, Social Innovation, Local Governance, Landscape, Creative Industries, Volunteering and Integration of Immigrants and Refugees in Rural Communities.

Euracademy has led or participated as a partner in a large number (over 12) EU-funded projects and has conducted research on a variety of themes, such as: the use of IT for lifelong learning in rural areas, the impact of Lifelong Learning on the inclusion of vulnerable groups (mostly immigrants) in rural areas, the sustainable exploitation of rural cultural heritage for local development, the familiarisation of the general public with European policies on the environment and landscape.

Every activity of Euracademy, being a summer academy, a research project or a publication, is steered and monitored by a committee of members, including academics and practitioners in relevant fields, who ensure that the outcomes are of the appropriate high quality standard and relevance to the target groups they address.