Course
CarboNostrum Blended Course
The CarboNostrum Course is an innovative blended course designed to equip learners with the necessary knowledge, skills, and competencies to actively promote sustainable agricultural practices that protect and preserve soils and ecosystems.
The CarboNostrum Pilot Action is an implementation-related activities dedicated to testing a new course to evaluate its effectiveness, efficiency and applicability to the trainees specific training needs and subsequently potentiate a climate-smart agriculture and a sustainable and fair future.
To the participants will be required to engage in the Pilot Action and provide feedback to improve the final version of the CarboNostrum Blended Course.
Duration
150 hours | 14 weeks
Weekly study
12 hours
E-Learning
13 weeks
F2F
1 week
Climate Change is a significant and multifaceted challenge that continues to impact humanity on a global scale. Its origin is linked to early stages of human impact on the natural environment, and the social, cultural, and economic disparities it has sprung over the last few centuries.
Although it is a global issue, the responsibility, and negative impacts are not globally distributed. The ecological fragility of certain landscapes will result in amplified and accelerated impacts, exacerbating their pre-existing vulnerability, which is further compounded by the historical events of the past few centuries. The agricultural sector is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and the environmental consequences of unsustainable food production cannot be underestimated.
Mediterranean-type ecosystems are particularly fragile regarding agricultural activity and food production due to long and dry summers, followed by autumns of intense rainfall, which creates maximum erosion rates on soils that are already poor in organic matter. Southern Europe, especially Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Türkiye, present clear environmental disparities when compared to their northern counterparts.
However, there is hope. Smallholder farmers and young and new agricultural producers can have an essential role in the fight against climate change. The CarboNostrum course intends to be the first step to providing climate change mitigation and adaptation knowledge for the agricultural sector. The current science behind the causes, effects, and potential solutions to climate change is widely acknowledged, indicating that the next step is to put it into practice, by combining contemporary research and technology with traditional agricultural practices.
If you are a farmer in the Mediterranean region, chances are you have been dealing with enhanced desertification and other issues related to climate change, and face the question of how to adapt your production to match economic and environmental needs in the short and long term.
In the face of climate change and enhanced desertification, CarboNostrum Blended Course will provide:
1) technical and material conditions to increase climate resilience and promote soil parameters such as organic matter and water retention capacity;
2) a methodological framework to provide economic resilience in a business that is fragile by definition, and even more in a hotter and drier environment, since there is the risk of reduced crop yield and loss of income;
3) complementary education and training to have access to more recent knowledge regarding ecosystem services and how to create market value from the very foundations of their activity, and the environmental services they provide (regulation, support, provision, and cultural).
What will you achieve?
CarboNostrum Blended Course aims to empower smallholder and new farmers across Mediterranean Europe to rethink or change their land management practices to effectively combat climate change and desertification, increase their economic sustainability, and be a valuable step towards a sustainable and fair future, where no one is left behind.
What topics will be covered?
Climate change and desertification in the Mediterranean region (expected effects in susceptible areas and vulnerable communities)
Understanding the carbon cycle of land-climate and plant-soil feedbacks: soil carbon sequestration in a smallholder environment
Application and analysis of mitigation and adaptation tools in poor and degraded lands (land use/occupation, management, and valuation) under climate change
Back to basics: the role of traditional knowledge in climate-smart agriculture in a changing world
Assessment of soil parameters and designing a baseline scenario with readily available tools
To Whom
The CarboNostrum initiative is an ideal fit for smallholder farmers and young or new agricultural producers.
Participation in the Pilot Action of the CarboNostrum project is also open to professionals of Agricultural Cooperatives, Local Development Associations, and Rural Areas Municipalities, among others.
The CarboNostrum Pilot Action is an implementation-related activities dedicated to testing a new course to evaluate its effectiveness, efficiency and applicability to the trainees specific training needs and subsequently potentiate a climate-smart agriculture and a sustainable and fair future.
To the participants will be required to engage in the Pilot Action and provide feedback to improve the final version of the CarboNostrum Blended Course.
A total of 35[1] participants - 7 learners from each partner country | Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Türkiye - will be selected to the practical training part that will occur during the CarboNostrum Transnational Pilot Course Training Event week in Thessaloniki Greece. Travelling, accommodations, meals, insurance and local field trip expenses will be covered by the CarboNostrum project.
All participants must be of legal age, proficiency in the English language (B2), and be willing to undertake all modules, activities, and evaluations provided in CarboNostrum Blended Course. And have availability to participate in a face-to-face training week in Thessaloniki | Greece, from 19th to 26th November 2023.
The requirements stated above are mandatory for the Pilot Action enrolment.
[1] If the limit is exceeded, the participants to enter the Pilot Action will be selected according criteria stated in the Selection of Participants section to enrol in CarboNostrum Pilot Action follow the link and fulfil the registration form!
Selection of Participants
The participants to attend the Pilot Action will be selected according to the following criteria:
the Adequacy of their educational and/or professional background with the topics in the CarboNostrum Course;
their Motivation, expressions of interest for following the CarboNostrum Course and the Usability of the CarboNostrum Course;
Fluency in English to be able to participate in the CarboNostrum Transnational Pilot Course Training Event;
whenever possible we will follow gender equality selection;
The registration for the Pilot Action will be open from 30th June to 20th July 2023.
The publication of the selection process results will be made on the 3rd August in the CarboNostrum website and social media.
Curriculum Vitae
The Adequacy of the educational background and work experience stated in the Curriculum Vitae will be analysed according to a scale of 1 to 4, where:
1 - is Not appropriate or relevant,
2 - Satisfactorily adequate or relevant,
3 - Pretty adequate or relevant,
4 - Totally appropriate or relevant.
This criterion represents 30% of the overall scoring (100%).
Motivation and Content Learning Usability
In the registration form the participants will requires to state the Motives for enrolling and how they Intent to Use the content learnt during the course in their professional activity.
We will use the scale of 1 to 4, where:
1 - is Not appropriate or relevant,
2 - Satisfactorily adequate or relevant,
3 - Pretty adequate or relevant,
4 - Totally appropriate or relevant.
This criterion represents 30% of the overall scoring (100%).
Language Proficiency
As the course is conducted in English, participants will be required to demonstrate a certain level of proficiency in the English language (B2). As so, during the fulfilment of the registration form it will be provided an evaluation timed questionnaire containing 3 sections:
Writing (open question assessing Motivation and Content Learning Usability)
Reading and Comprehension (multiple choice questions assessing the comprehension of a text)
Listening (multiple choice questions assessing the comprehension of a video)
This criterion represents 40% of the overall scoring (100%).
CarboNostrum Blended Course is an innovative blended course, developed as an Erasmus+ Programme project 2021-1-PT01-KA220-VET-000033188, that includes e-learning, synchronized sessions, and face-to-face meetings. The course follows a theory-practice methodology that allows a rapid transference of knowledge and competencies (theoretical framework; exemplification, peer learning, application to real problems, and discussion of real cases) by equipping learners with knowledge and competencies that will empower their role in providing more sustainable agriculture practices that actively preserve the fields.
The CarboNostrum Course is composed of 6 modules, with a total of 150 hours of average planned duration:
 | 114 hours of online training | |
 | 66 hours of asynchronized online sessions | autonomous work | |
 | 48 hours of synchronized online sessions | |
 | 36 hours of face-to-face training |practical Labs and in the field training | |
Course Modules
 | M1 - Climate change and desertification in the Mediterranean region |
 | M2 - Understanding the carbon cycle of land-climate and plant-soil feedbacks: soil carbon sequestration in a smallholder environment |
 | M3 - Applying and analysing mitigation and adaptation tools in poor and degraded lands |
 | M4 - Back to basics: the role of traditional knowledge in climate-smart agriculture in a changing world |
 | M5 - Assessment of soil parameters and designing a baseline scenario with readily available tools |
 | M6 - Creating value from ecosystem services, carbon cycling, and land restoration |
