To bring forth the Research, Education and Training Circle fleshing out what the circle mission, aims and activities for this up and coming circle. Centering around bringing together existing resources by building on permaculture research and furthering permaculture education and training, building on the valuable work already done in this domain all over the CoLab, making this a cohesive effort working with and collaborating with other Circles, projects and working groups to make this happen.

Team Objectives – Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Time-bound, in line with the International Permaculture CoLab vision, mission and aims and within the scope of this grant

We have come together to bring forth the Research, Education and Training Circle fleshing out what the circle mission, aims and activities will be, we have some ideas around this and have already had some conversations and circle meetings.

We will become an established circle like the Digital and Funding Circles, creating opportunities in research, education, and training domains. We will bring together existing resources by building on permaculture research and furthering permaculture education and training, building on the valuable work already done in this domain all over the CoLab, making this a cohesive effort working with and collaborating with other Circles, projects and working groups to make this happen.

We are asking for your support to help fund a part of the incubation process which requires a large number of volunteer hours.

Building on a year of groundwork; interviews, surveys, a needs assessment, and a database of Indigenous-identifying permaculture practices, this project moves from listening to action. That earlier phase also introduced a cohort of Indigenous permaculture practitioners to the CoLab. What emerged clearly from that process is that while the CoLab holds significant value, its resources are not structured in a way that is easy to navigate for practitioners who are new to the space, particularly those working outside institutional frameworks. The CoLab’s wealth of tools, trainings, and community connections can be lost without a structured entry point.
This project responds directly to that finding by designing and delivering four live sessions, each addressing a specific and recurring need identified among Indigenous practitioners, matched to what the CoLab already offers. The aim is to amplify the impact of these projects through resource matching and training.
Session 1: Orientation and Clarity covers ethical digital tools, familiarising practitioners with the CoLab space, networking norms, and getting clear on your project. Participants will learn how to use the community space to gather support, build connection, and begin articulating what they need and what they offer. They will also learn about why open source tools align with indigenous philosophies and what tools the CoLab offers members.

Session 1: Orientation and Clarity covers ethical digital tools, familiarising practitioners with the CoLab space, networking norms, and getting clear on your project. Participants will learn how to use the community space to gather support, build connection, and begin articulating what they need and what they offer. They will also learn about why open source tools align with indigenous philosophies and what tools the CoLab offers members. 

Session 2: Ethical Marketing and Impact Communication builds on the clarity developed in Session 1. Drawing from ethical marketing training recording, this session highlights the practical ways the CoLab can support practitioners with visibility: through the newsletter, allied partnership pathways, and content or video submissions to the comms team. Clear guidelines will be provided on what makes content both appropriate and strategic, so that practitioners can advance their own projects while contributing meaningfully to the CoLab as a whole. The session will also cover communicating impact, and how grounding your work in impact evidence sets you up to become more funding ready.

Session 3: Funding Readiness and Resources addresses one of the most consistently raised needs from the research phase. It is important to be clear that the CoLab is not a funding provider, but it does hold a funding database and training on funding readiness. This session will provide practical guidance on the different forms of funding practitioners can pursue, how to navigate the CoLab’s funding database, and how to make use of the other tools available to strengthen funding applications and long-term financial sustainability.

Session 4 — Mindset and Leadership focuses on how to approach international spaces, self-confidence, assertiveness, and clear communication. This session is about how practitioners can move with a deeply rooted Indigenous mindset and use that grounding to shift and transform the spaces they enter, rather than assimilating into them. It is about reclaiming authority and presence in spaces that have historically not been designed with Indigenous practitioners in mind.

Across all four sessions, Indigenous voices are centred; not as case studies, but as contributors, co-facilitators, and knowledge holders. These live conversations create space for practitioners to share their stories and experiences directly within the CoLab community. The intention is not simply to inform but to build real, lasting connection so that more practitioners feel genuinely called to join, contribute, and grow with the community over time. The sessions are designed to be replicable, creating an onboarding pathway that can serve future cohorts of Indigenous practitioners and strengthen the CoLab’s own reach and relevance.

A podcast series that wants to inform, share, and create an archive about Permaculture Convergences and how the very existence of the CoLab is linked to those in real life events that try to keep the momentum in an ever changing fast-paced world. Our team will interview various key figures in the Permaculture movement with the objective of sharing their journeys, collecting testimonies, and offering once more the case for coherence in the global movement. 

This project will open a conversation with organisations aligned with permaculture to explore how existing maps and datasets can be linked. By doing so, it supports collaboration, reduces duplication and makes the movement and its allies more visible and accessible worldwide. Ultimately, it helps communities see the many initiatives driving change, all in one shared map. This builds on important work already developed for the existing Global Permaculture Map and involves moving it to a platform where hosting costs are covered, helping reduce ongoing expenses while ensuring long-term sustainability.

Current map can be found at https://map.perma.earth/

Details of the previous project that produced it can be found at https://perma.earth/project/global-permaculture-movement-map/

Permaculture has a well-developed body of knowledge for designing land and ecosystems, but far less exists to guide the design of permaculture businesses and organisations. Last year, the Mapping Permaculture Business Models team began to address that gap. We interviewed successful permaculture business owners, developed a set of archetypes inspired by nature, and built a framework that uses the eight forms of capital and value flows as a more living model for understanding permaculture business design. We then formatted this into a guide and visual model which can be found here

This year we return to deepen that work. First, the core team runs collaborative design sessions to refine the archetypes and the business model framework, working through how the three permaculture ethics are embedded in the model and how the eight forms of capital actually flow through it. Second, we bring the expert practitioners we interviewed back into the room to collaboratively engage with the work, dig into the findings together, and develop a deeper shared understanding. Third, we reformat the existing research into more practical and digestible resources, including design activities that people can use to apply the framework to their own contexts.

The goal here is to move from theory to practice and to bring the findings into helping permaculture microenterprises survive and thrive. Our name ‘The Permaculture Business Lab’ reflects this intention to open into a space for shared learning and experimentation

Bonus goal: Mentorship and Q&A spaces for CoLab members: to develop a model for opening up mentorship routes discussed with the practitioners last year and hosting Q&A and mentorship time available for CoLab members who want to go deeper.