URBAN ROOTS Project: Collaborative Learning and Action for Food, Community, and Solidarity
In today’s rapidly urbanizing world, the role of urban agriculture has gained renewed significance as cities struggle with food security, ecological resilience, and social cohesion. Far beyond its historical roots as a source of fresh produce, contemporary urban agriculture serves as a vital tool for advancing food sovereignty, nurturing ecological awareness, and fostering neighborhood solidarity in dense metropolitan contexts. Community gardens, market plots, rooftop or vertical farms, and other innovative practices bring food production closer to citizens, while also transforming underused urban spaces into productive hubs of learning, collective care, and environmental stewardship. These spaces not only supply fresh food, but also foster neighborhood engagement, biodiversity, climate adaptation, and circular resource flows.
Within this context Urban Roots aims to examine the transformative role of urban agriculture and its various applications to arrive at circular and sustainable urban environments, through a series of nested activities that bring together undergraduate and graduate students from diverse disciplines across EELISA universities. The initiative will combine the following activities in a chronological order:
– February-March 2026: three theme-based online forums that will be open access to all (“foundation”);
– April 2026: a 2-day learning expedition in Madrid (“exploration”) – JOIN HERE
– May 2026: a post-expedition online atelier (“synthesis”)
– June-July 2026: a 5-day intensive Urban Roots field school concluding with stakeholder dissemination in Istanbul (“co-creation & impact”).
The Urban Roots project integrates a layered mix of innovative, participatory, and interdisciplinary pedagogical approaches and accompanying innovative learning methods that are carefully designed through the abovementioned four phases to connect knowledge acquisition with socially impactful action, reflecting the EELISA’s vision. It ensures a strong balance between learners and educators, as well as between academic and non-academic stakeholders from the EELISA Alliance and beyond.
Enrollment
As this project is composed of four different activities, you have to register individually on each to participate.
WHEN
February to July
WHERE
Online for February, March and May activities
Onsite in Madrid, on April 2026
Onsute in Istambul, on June & July
APPLICATION DEADLINE
30 of July