WinEra offers an innovative vocational training process to support the development of organic viticulture in Europe, integrating into a common curriculum all aspects of development of organic viticulture (farming techniques, production methods, marketing, communication, ethics & corporate social responsibility). The EU wine market has been experiencing a strong growth in demand and production for organic viticulture for the last 10 years. Thus, it is important that industry professionals (wine producers & farmers) have the key skills & competences to match & keep up to these challenges. It is a question of considering organic viticulture not only from a technical point of view, but also in all aspects of the producer's relationship with its customers & its territory. The execution of the Erasmus+ project Bacchus SME (2016-1-FR01-KA202-023903) has provided the partners with the possibility to interact for a significant period of time with a lot of wineries in their countries. Many of them recognize the great demand for organic and bio-dynamic wines (OBDWs) on the market & the increasing trends in the next years. Their managers shared that they have significant interest to enter this market segment but they lack information about the specific steps they should undertake. Yes, there are courses on organic farming in agricultural universities – however, these courses are at least a two-year programme and are classroom-based. There are also several courses on agricultural farming by some VET centers but they are too general and have no specific focus of wine growing and wine making. So in the end it appears that there is nothing really applicable on the market to respond to these needs. Besides, the project on training in organic olive oil production (2015-1-TR01-KA202-022526 - ECOLIVE) has clearly proved that the farmers need targeted training – if they grow olives, they need trainings in farming & production of olive oil, if they grow & make wine – they need a course specifically for grapes and wine. Because they have nor the time, nor the possibility to attend a full university course in order to start growing & producing OBDWs. They need a training that "talks on their language" and is tailored to their needs. WinEra project will develop a multidisciplinary, interactive & comprehensive b-learning training course in production & marketing of organic and bio-dynamic wine (OBDWs) & promotion of the wine as part of the intangible cultural heritage of EU. The main outputs of the project are: - WinEra Learning model - WinEra Training course (with 3 sections: How to produce OBDW?; How to market OBDW?; Wine as cultural heritage) - WinEra Manual for trainers - WinEra platform with Interactive repository Section - WinEra Guidebook on certification of organic & biodynamic wine The aim of the project is to enhance the competitiveness of the European wineries through development of their potential for production and promotion of organic and biodynamic wines. The main objective of the proposal shall be: - to enhance the development opportunities and boost the growth potential of EU wineries by entering a market of organic and biodynamic wines; - to develop specific knowledge and competences in the EU wineries to produce and promote organic and bio-dynamic wines; - to provide transversal, multidisciplinary and tailor-made training on organic & bio-dynamic wine production and promotion in response to the specific needs of the wineries; - to remind & develop awareness that the wine is part of the cultural, gastronomic and landscape heritage of the country; - to increase the support provided to the farmers and wine makers to enter the market of organic wine; - to encourage the application of organic farming & production approaches among wine growers; - to promote use of sustainable agricultural farming & wine production methods among EU farmers & wineries; - to promote wider use of organic and bio-dynamic wines among EU customers. The specific target groups of the project are: - wine growers & wine companies wishing to engage in conversion to organic farming but lacking comprehensive & integrated training with detailed information for each step of the process. - new wine entrepreneurs who do not come from the agricultural world & have not gone through the traditional agricultural training systems and are often missed by the professional agricultural organizations supporting traditional wine producers. - trainers from EU VET institutions active in the field of viticulture. The expected impact on national & EU levels are: - cover the needs for new, multidisciplinary, experience-oriented and user-friendly approaches for development of professional competences of farmers, agronomists, oenologists and wineries in production of OBDWs; - raised awareness of the local community on the value and importance of the intangible cultural heritage like wine & wine making; - transfer of know-how and experience on OBDW production & marketing
WINERA aimed to develop European resources to train winegrowers to train winegrowers in the transition to organic viticulture and biodynamics.. In a context of rapid development of organic viticulture in Europe, it did not exist any complete training resources, covering all the topics and issues related to organic certification in viticulture, and allowing independent learning. Supported by a consortium of 6 partners active in the fields of vocational training and agriculture (CDE Petra Patrimonia, France; DAKOM, Bulgaria; Agrotourist Vodnjan, Croatia; EUROSUCCESS, Cyprus; University of Salamanca, Spain; GAL Molise verso il 2000, Italy), the project took place over 30 months between December 2018 and April 2021. WinEra is primarily aimed at: - To new wine entrepreneurs, who are graduating and wish to embark on the creation or conversion of an organic domain, - To wine growers already established who wish to engage in organic certification but lack technical references and supports, - Training and technical support organizations for winegrowers who wish to support organic certification for their target audiences. At the end of the project, we offer these target groups a series of complementary and innovative training and technical support tools, available in 6 languages (English, Bulgarian, Croatian, Spanish, French, Italian) and free to use. 1. A multidisciplinary training catalog on the specificities of organic and biodynamic viticulture, covering almost all of the issues and key themes for winegrowers: vineyard management, wine production techniques, economic, commercial and marketing aspects, relationships to the environment, challenges of organic viticulture in the face of climate change, enhancement of heritage and wine tourism. Each topic is exposed in a 10 to 20 page module depending on the topic, accompanied by case studies, activity proposals, technical and practical references and a selective bibliography. 2. The WINERA training platform allows independent online learning, but also gives the possibility of working under the supervision of a mentor, with whom to interact, to whom to submit activities, questions… This platform is available in 6 languages, and gives access to all the courses by simple registration, free of charge and without limit of use. The training content, which remains classic (illustrated pdf searchable online or by download) are supplemented by a large number of additional, more interactive resources, designed specifically for the project or collected from European and international references in the field. Interviews with winegrowers were filmed in the different countries to enrich each language version with feedback in the national language, Quizzes are offered for each module, slide shows, articles, etc. are also downloadable or viewable online. 3. The trainers manual helps organize the role of the trainer in a blended learning process, in addition to autonomous self-learning through the platform. He explains how to intervene via the platform and helps him build his intervention in addition to the courses available online. The development of the manual has also helped to clarify the process for the certification of learners, which will be issued by the University of Salamanca. 4. These training tools are completed by a series of technical supports aimed at supporting the conversion process: a technical guide to support certification, which details the regulations in force and specifies the stages of organic certification; a collection of good practices which presents feedback from organic winegrowers across Europe and highlights the cultural and heritage dimensions of viticulture; a synthetic presentation document of the WINERA training. The WINERA productions are accessible from the project website (winera-project.eu). Several communication tools were developped to promote the process and the results since the begining of the project: website, Facebook page, flyers, kakemono, final synthetic brochure. The project directly affected: - 70 European winegrowers and trainers during the testing activities of the training content and the platform at the end of 2020-beginning of 2021 - Around 200 students, winegrowers, trainers or technical experts during the dissemination events held during the month of April 2021. - At least 2000 technical organizations in viticulture, organic or biodynamic agriculture, viticultural training organizations directly affected by results dissemination activities, Newsletters, flyers, etc.