AMERICAN FARM SCHOOL POST SECONDARY EDUCATIONAL AND TRAINING ASSOCIATION

Their core work

Perrotis College is the academic arm of the American Farm School in Thessaloniki — a century-old institution offering applied agricultural education and hands-on training. Their core work is developing future professionals for the agri-food sector through experiential, practice-based learning methods rooted in real farming operations. In EU research, they contribute as an educational and training partner: providing curriculum expertise, student cohorts as test cases, and pedagogical frameworks for how agricultural knowledge is transferred from research to practice. They bridge the gap between scientific discovery and the next generation of farm managers, agri-food entrepreneurs, and rural development practitioners.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Perrotis College entered H2020 with a clear focus on agricultural education methodology — how farming knowledge is taught, structured, and transferred through action learning and innovation system frameworks (NEXTFOOD, 2018). Their second project marks a pivot toward digital agriculture: TERMINET is an IoT infrastructure project with no agri-education keywords at all, suggesting they stepped outside their core lane, possibly as an agricultural application site or end-user partner. With only two projects and no keywords recorded for the recent phase, the direction of this digital turn is hard to confirm — it could be strategic or opportunistic.

Perrotis appears to be testing the boundary between its education core and emerging digital farming technologies — future collaborators in precision agriculture or AgriTech could find a credible applied-learning testbed partner here, though the commitment to this direction is not yet proven.

How they like to work

Perrotis College participates exclusively as a consortium member and has never led an H2020 project — a pattern consistent with an institution that contributes specialized educational and sector knowledge rather than driving research agendas. Despite only two projects, they have worked with 44 distinct partners across 19 countries, which points to large, diverse consortia rather than tight-knit repeat collaborations. This suggests they are comfortable operating as one specialist node in a broad international network.

With 44 unique partners across 19 countries from just two projects, Perrotis College has a surprisingly wide-reaching network relative to its project count. Their reach is pan-European with no obvious geographic concentration beyond their Greek base.

What sets them apart

Perrotis College is one of very few higher education institutions in the Mediterranean region that combines an operational working farm with a formal college curriculum — this makes them a rare dual asset: both a knowledge institution and a real agricultural testbed. Their century-long connection to the American Farm School gives them credibility with international partners that most Greek HEIs lack. For consortia building agri-food education, AKIS, or precision agriculture pilots, they offer direct access to student cohorts, farm infrastructure, and practitioner networks in southeastern Europe.

Highlights from their portfolio

• NEXTFOOD
  The largest funded project (EUR 485,750) and the clearest match for Perrotis's core identity — training the next generation of agri-food professionals using action learning and AKIS frameworks.
• TERMINET
  A departure from their education focus into IoT infrastructure, signaling potential interest in smart farming applications and broadening their digital agriculture credentials.