EVEC’s hands-on methodology · Erasmus+ & European Solidarity Corps
Mycelium as an educational tool.
We grow fungal mycelium on the olive-tree prunings farmers burn every winter — turning agricultural waste into food, biomaterials, and a hands-on lesson in green, digital and entrepreneurial skills. Here is how we put it to work across every Erasmus+ field, and how you can take part yourself.
Erasmus+ KA1 YouthESC Quality LabelOID E10172681PIC 909448430
New to mycelium? Start here
Nature’s answer to styrofoam — grown from waste in a week.
Mushrooms are only the fruit. The real organism is mycelium — a dense web of living, root-like threads that spreads as it feeds, and glues whatever it grows through into one solid mass. We put that quiet superpower to work.
From a burning pile to a building block — in five steps
Take the waste
Olive prunings farmers would burn — or any farm leftover: straw, reeds, sawdust, husks.
Chop & fill a mould
Shred it small, mix in mycelium, and pack it into a mould — any shape you want.
Let it grow ~7 days
The mycelium eats through the waste and binds it solid, taking the exact shape of the mould.
Bake it
A gentle heat stops the growth and locks the shape for good.
It’s a material
Light and rigid like styrofoam — ready for packaging, insulation and more.
Mushroom foam grown from waste
- Grown from free farm waste, not oil
- Light and rigid — does styrofoam’s job
- Naturally water-resistant
- Chars instead of melting — safer in a fire than plastic foam
- Composts back into the soil in weeks
Styrofoam (EPS) drilled from oil
- Made from oil and plastic
- Melts and drips in a fire
- Never biodegrades — lingers for centuries
- Piles up in landfills and washes into the sea
- Can never go back to the earth
Same job, opposite footprint. We grow the packaging — we don’t drill for it.
And here is the point for educators: a learner who grows a single mycelium brick has quietly done biology (how a fungus digests waste), materials science (a real composite), design (the mould), data (measuring the growth) and business (a product people actually want) — and walks away holding the proof. That is exactly why we use it as a teaching tool.
Why a fungus teaches so much
A near-perfect learning tool — for one simple reason in four parts.
Mycelium is not a gimmick we picked at random. As a teaching vehicle it starts from a real local problem, runs on free waste, ends in something you can hold, and crosses half the curriculum — which is exactly why the same method works for a school class, an adult group, a vocational mobility or an international youth exchange.
A real problem, in their hands
Every winter farmers burn their olive prunings. Learners start from that real, local problem — air pollution and wasted biomass — and turn it into something useful. Problem-based learning that actually motivates.
Built from free waste
The raw material is branches that would otherwise be burned — abundant, local and free. Cost is never the barrier: it works in a school with no garden, a youth centre or a community space.
Two harvests you can hold
One waste stream yields food — gourmet and medicinal mushrooms — and materials — biodegradable packaging, insulation and design objects. A lesson becomes a real product, which builds ownership and confidence.
One organism, many subjects
Biology, chemistry, the scientific method, data, design, sustainability and business — all in one activity. Ideal for mixed-ability, mixed-interest groups working side by side.
Mycelium is a proven method used by educators, designers and scientists worldwide — not something we invented. We don’t have a lab yet: we are building a living lab to put it to work, and the deep how-to library will live on our specialist portal, mycelium.org.gr (coming soon). It sits alongside our other hands-on tools, like microgreens and our drone-sport programme.
The skills participants can gain
Mapped to the EU competence frameworks evaluators actually use.
This is what makes mycelium fundable, not just fascinating. A single project develops competences across the frameworks behind the whole Erasmus+ agenda — and advances all four horizontal priorities at once.
GreenComp
Green skills
Turn a burned-waste problem into a closed-loop circular system — divert biomass from burning, design for compostability, and measure the environmental gain. Sustainability you act out, not just read about.
EntreComp
Entrepreneurship
Cost a substrate batch, prototype a mycelium product and pitch a venture — learners run real idea-to-value loops. Learning real business concepts — not a promise of income.
DigComp 2.2
Digital skills
Log colonisation and yield data, document the process, design composite moulds, and build the promotion — a portfolio, QR-labelled packaging and social content.
LifeComp
Wellbeing & soft skills
Long grow-cycles build patience, routine and resilience; growing in teams builds collaboration, communication and a growth mindset — and learning from contamination builds grit.
Key Competences
STEM & breadth
One organism honestly touches biology, chemistry, maths and data, design, sustainability and business — the transversal breadth the 2018 key-competence framework is built around.
All 4 priorities, 1 activity
Erasmus+
One project advances the green transition, digital transformation, inclusion and participation — the horizontal priorities every application is scored against.
Outcomes describe what participants can gain and depend on how the activity is run. EVEC hosts and facilitates as a partner NGO — activities lead to a certificate of participation / Youthpass-style recognition of non-formal learning, not a formal qualification. The living lab is being built; figures such as olive-waste volumes and pollution levels are external estimates, not EVEC findings, and we make no medical claims.
Door A · for organisations
Co-design a mycelium project in your field.
You bring the learners and the theme; we bring an Athens base in the heart of olive country, the grow-and-learn method, and the living lab we are building together. Here is one concrete, fundable project seed for every Erasmus+ field — each links to that field’s page, where a partner enquiry form is waiting.
Erasmus+ Youth
From Ash to Mycelium: a circular-economy exchange
Young people from several countries turn burned-in-the-field olive prunings into mushroom harvests and grown-material objects, then take a zero-waste action home — one short KA152 mobility, all four priorities.
Build a Youth project →
School Education
Burning fields to living classrooms
Co-create a cross-curricular STEAM unit and an open, multilingual toolkit where pupils grow mushrooms and biomaterials from local olive waste — a KA220-SCH partnership, not a course to buy.
Build a School project →
Adult Education
From waste to work: a green upskilling pathway
A low-barrier KA220-ADU pathway where adults gain green and entrepreneurial skills growing mushrooms and materials from local agricultural waste, then deliver it back in their own communities.
Build an Adult project →
VET
FUNGI-VET: olive prunings to bio-based skills
Host incoming VET learners for hands-on biofabrication — substrate prep, sterile inoculation, quality control and moulding mycelium composites — with ECVET-described, micro-credential-ready outcomes.
Host a VET mobility →
Sport
MoveMyco: active trails, living materials
An Erasmus+ Sport small-scale partnership pairing outdoor foraging hikes that gather olive waste with building a mycelium grow-station — physical activity, teamwork and green skills for all.
Build a Sport project →
Horizon Europe
MYCO-MED: citizen co-creation & exploitation
Add EVEC to your Cluster 6 consortium as the non-research engagement and exploitation (DCE) partner — Mediterranean living-lab demonstrators, farmer and learner workshops, multilingual dissemination.
Add EVEC to a consortium →
Door B · for individuals
Get your own hands in the substrate.
Not an organisation? You can still work with mycelium directly — and help build the living lab from the first batch of substrate — as an intern, a local or online volunteer, or a fully EU-funded ESC volunteer. Every route ends with a certificate of participation and a reference.
Internship
A field-matched mycelium traineeship
Join us in Athens on an Erasmus+ traineeship shaped around your field — lab & biofabrication, biomaterial design, comms or coordination — and help build the lab under a Learning Agreement.
Apply for a traineeship →
Local volunteering
The Athens build-crew
Live in or near Athens? Help build the lab from the first batch of substrate — prep, inoculate, tend the grows and run harvest days and neighbourhood workshops. No experience needed.
Join the build-crew →
Online volunteering
Grow it online
No need to be in Athens — build the open multilingual toolkits, translate the curriculum, design graphics, run social media or help shape the mycelium.org.gr portal, from anywhere.
Volunteer online →
European Solidarity Corps
Build, grow, belong: an ESC placement
2–12 EU-funded months in Athens helping build and run the mycelium living lab and lead community workshops. Accommodation, food, ~€420/mo allowance, travel, insurance and a mentor are covered.
Apply to volunteer →
How the method works
One waste stream, a closed loop.
No lab photos yet — we are building the living lab now, and this space will fill with real builds and harvests. Here is the loop your learners run, hands-on, at every step.
Waste
Olive prunings farmers would otherwise burn.
Substrate
Chipped & pasteurised into fungal feedstock.
Mycelium
Fungal threads colonise and bind it solid.
Food & material
Mushrooms to eat; composites to mould.
Compost
Spent substrate breaks down — nothing wasted.
Soil
Compost returns to the grove. The loop closes.
↻ Waste → Substrate → Mycelium → Food & Material → Compost → Soil — and back again.
Real photos from our first builds and harvests will appear here as the lab takes shape — follow along, or come and help build it.
Go deeper
A dedicated mycelium portal is coming.
The full method — curriculum, build guides, the project library and the science — will live on our specialist open portal, mycelium.org.gr. This page is the invitation; that portal will be the encyclopaedia. Tell us you want in and we’ll let you know the moment it opens.
Let’s grow something together
Three doors into a mycelium project.
Co-design a funded Erasmus+ project, take part yourself, or bring EVEC into a Horizon Europe consortium. Pick your door — each page has the full details and the way to reach us.
For organisations
Erasmus+ partnerships
Co-design a funded project in Youth, School, Adult, VET or Sport, with EVEC as your Athens host and coordinator.
Explore Erasmus+ →
For individuals
Get Involved
Join hands-on as an intern, a local or online volunteer, or a fully funded ESC volunteer, and help build the living lab.
Find your way in →
For research consortia
Horizon Europe
Add EVEC as your non-research engagement and exploitation (DCE) partner on a Cluster 6 bioeconomy proposal.
Partner on Horizon →
Keep exploring
Related
All Erasmus+ partnerships
See every field and Key Action we partner on — Youth, School, Adult, VET, Sport and Horizon.
View pages →
Get involved as a person
Internship, local and online volunteering, or a funded ESC placement — find your way in.
View page →
Microgreens — our other tool
Our flagship hands-on methodology: one low-cost tray that builds green, digital and entrepreneurial skills.
See the method →
