The free online course was developed by the UK's University of Reading with support from EIT Climate-KIC Online Education to scale the international agriculture sector's response to climate change. It is funded by EIT Climate-KIC's CSA Booster flagship. The English-only version running on Future Learn has already attracted over 5,000 participants since launching early last year.
The MOOC shares expert contributions from leading EU institutions including Italy's National Research Council, Institute of Biometeorology (IBIMET), Netherland's Wageningen University & Research (WUR), the French National Institute for Agriculture Research (INRA) and the Regional Agency for environmental protection of Sardinia (ARPAS). After introducing the concept of climate-smart agriculture in week one, the course takes an in-depth look at practical climate mitigation and adaptation opportunities in EU dairy production and in EU wine production.
Pan Pan, Head of EIT Climate-KIC’s Flagship Programme CSA Booster and Deputy Director of the Sustainable Land Use theme, said: "The smart innovation needed to tackle climate change over coming decades has major economic and environmental ramifications for the global agrifood sector. As more and more people are educating themselves about the environment, we wanted to share our networked expertise and make our popular 'Future of Farming' course more accessible to today's growing generation of multilingual online learners. Today's students are tomorrow's leaders."
Dr Matthieu Arnoult, University of Reading, says: “Our course takes an engaging and practical look at new environmental challenges facing some of the EU’s biggest agricultural exports, including milk and wine. It is interactive, non-specialist and is specifically designed to be accessible to anyone who wants to learn more about modern food production, farming and environmental challenges.”
The MOOC is FREE no matter which language participants choose to study in and is structured in flexible hours over three weeks from 24 September 2018.
To study in English please register by 24 September with Future Learn here
To study in German, French or Chinese please register by 24 September with EIT Climate-KIC here
Note to Editors:
Please share news of this free MOOC with all relevant networks, student bodies or learning institutions in your communities, especially in Germany, France and China.
For assistance and copies of all translated artwork, materials, posters, course introduction video, digital files and other content please contact: Tom Howard-Vyse (communications, CSA Booster, EIT Climate-KIC)
tom.howard-vyse@community.climate-kic.org | +44 (0)7920 269 477