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.

Permaculture has developed one of the most coherent frameworks for regenerative land use design available; yet it remains largely absent from formal policy discourse. Meanwhile, agroecology is gaining traction at national and international levels, appearing in food sovereignty frameworks, national agricultural strategies, and UN-aligned policy instruments. Permaculture is occasionally referenced as a subset of agroecology, but this framing undersells its design methodology and risks reducing it to a loose set of practices rather than a systems-level approach to land, resource, and community design.

This project examines the interface between permaculture and agroecology policy. We will review two to three national policy documents that formally integrate agroecological principles, mapping where permaculture’s design framework either already intersects with or could meaningfully strengthen those policy positions. From this analysis, we will develop a set of concrete recommendations for how permaculture as a distinct and rigorous design system might begin to enter policy conversations at national level.

The work is exploratory and analytical rather than prescriptive. The team will determine the specific countries and documents reviewed, but the output will be a structured, evidence-informed document that CoLab members and permaculture advocates can use as a foundation for ongoing policy engagement.