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Questions about growing, workshops, the cooperative or partnerships? Send us a message and we will reply by email.
Prefer email? Write to erasmus@evec.org.gr
EVEC Microgreens
The methodology, and the organisation behind it
This portal is the home of the microgreens methodology — a hands-on teaching method that works for any vocation and any age, running since 2025. The organisation behind it is EVEC Athens, a Greek non-profit holding an Erasmus+ Youth accreditation, working in European youth, volunteering and education projects since 2017. This page explains who we are, what we have built, and how to check any of it.
Two things, kept separate on purpose
It matters which one you are dealing with, so we never blur them.
The methodology
A fast, low-cost, living crop becomes the thing learners grow while they learn. One complete cycle — sow, grow, harvest, cost, price, sell — runs in 7 to 14 days on a classroom budget, with no garden and no lab. It was developed and piloted inside a funded European Solidarity Corps project (2024-1-EL02-ESC51-VTJ-000225260) and launched in 2025. Everything it produces is published openly here.
The organisation behind it
EVEC Athens — legal name EVROPAIKO ETHELONTIKO KAI EKPAIDEFTIKO KENTRO, the European Voluntary and Educational Center — is a non-profit organisation based in Athens, working in European projects since 2017. It holds the accreditations, signs the grant agreements, and is the legal partner in any consortium. Partnerships are contracted with EVEC; the methodology and its materials live here.
Who you will actually work with at EVEC Athens
EVEC has run Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps projects since 2017. If you write to us, one of these two people reads it.
Mirlena Charisi
President of EVEC Athens, Educational Director, and its legal representative. A certified adult trainer specialising in non-formal and vocational education methodology and inclusive curriculum design. She is responsible for the pedagogical soundness of what we publish, and she is the person who signs the mandate letter a coordinator needs from a partner.
Blagoj Ristov
Erasmus+ Project Coordinator & Strategy Lead. Coordinates EVEC’s projects across KA1, KA2 and ESC, and is the creator of the microgreens methodology. He is usually the person who answers a partnership enquiry.
Around them, the day-to-day growing, workshops and writing are run by international European Solidarity Corps volunteers hosted in Athens — which is also why receiving learners and volunteers from abroad is familiar ground for us.
The volunteers who built it
The articles, graphics and social media channels at the heart of this portal were made by European Solidarity Corps volunteers hosted by EVEC Athens. Each volunteer appears here as she chose: her name, a photo or an avatar, and her own words.
European Solidarity Corps project 2024-1-EL02-ESC51-VTJ-000225260
Stay Healthy, Beautiful and Young – Detox with Microgreens 1 · volunteering in Athens, May 2025 – April 2026
Carlota Fernández
My volunteering mainly consisted of writing articles about microgreens. To do this, I spent a great deal of time reading scientific papers and specialised sources, which allowed me to gain extensive knowledge about microgreens. Based on the information I gathered, I wrote around 100 articles adapted for a general audience, making scientific information accessible and easy to understand.
In addition, I took part in activities related to growing microgreens in our office. These crops were used to carry out experiments on the growth of different microgreen species, as well as to produce photographs and videos for the promotion of the project on social media.
It has been a very rewarding experience, both professionally and personally. I learned a great deal and had the opportunity to work in a very positive multicultural environment.
Supporting organisation: Fundación Plan B Educación Social, Salamanca, Castilla y León, Spain
Julia Muñoz Lucena
As the project’s graphic designer, I created the visuals for our articles and social media channels, and I also wrote articles for the portal myself.
Supporting organisation: Estrellas del Sur, Spain
Karolina
Our mission from the beginning was to promote microgreens. As part of the project, I contributed by writing articles and creating social media content, while learning about and showcasing the microgreens growing process.
Supporting organisation: Stowarzyszenie Promocji Wolontariatu, Warsaw, Poland
Eliška Valašková
I was responsible for the whole process – coming up with ideas, filming, editing and posting content on social media. This experience helped me become more confident, proactive and able to turn ideas into practical results.
Supporting organisation: Truc sphérique, Žilina, Slovakia
Letizia Sammaritano
My experience with EVEC Athens has been incredibly rewarding, both professionally and personally. I had the opportunity to grow my communication and content-creation skills while working in a creative and inspiring environment. I’m very grateful for everything I learned, the people I met, and the freedom I was given to contribute my own ideas.
She returned in March 2026 for a long-term placement in project 2025-1-EL02-ESC51-VTJ-000345995.
Supporting organisation: CISS — Cooperazione Internazionale Sud Sud, Palermo, Italy
European Solidarity Corps project 2025-1-EL02-ESC51-VTJ-000345995
Stay Healthy, Beautiful and Young – Detox with Microgreens 2 · volunteering in Athens from January 2026
Paula Durán
As the project’s web designer, I built the first version of www.microgreens.org.gr, the portal where our volunteers’ articles are published.
Supporting organisation: Estrellas del Sur, Spain
What we have actually done
Since 2017, EVEC Athens has taken part in 24 Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps projects — nine as applicant and coordinator, fifteen as partner. The results page carries 24 rows: twenty-two of those projects with their grant reference — the nine applied for and coordinated, and thirteen as partner — plus both accreditation references. The two remaining partner references are yours on request from erasmus@evec.org.gr.
See the 24 published references, project by project →
The published record, by action and by field
By action
- 5KA153-YOU
- 2KA151-YOU
- 2ESC51-VTJ
- 1KA152-YOU
- 1KA150-YOUYouth accreditation
- 1ESC50-QLAESC Quality Label
- 1KA210-VET
- 11KA105legacy Youth mobility
By field
- 20Youth
- 2Volunteering
- 1VET
- 1Quality label
The one project in the VET field
2023-1-PL01-KA210-VET-000160460 — Reducing Pollution and Empowering Youth through Himmeli Creation. A KA210 small-scale cooperation partnership in the VET field, with EVEC as a partner. Open the record on the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform →
What a VET partnership with EVEC looks like in practice — the work package, the hosting, the trades — is on the Vocational (VET) partnerships page.
New to Cooperation Partnerships
EVEC is a newcomer to Cooperation Partnerships (KA220) — new to this Action, not to Erasmus+.
What this portal holds today
Counted from the database today.
- 374 open-licence scientific papers, full text and searchable, in The Original Papers — the largest thing on this portal.
- 21 plain-language summaries of open-access research in the Science Library.
- 26 crop guides in the Varieties database — most cover a single crop, a few compare several side by side.
- 40 grow-at-home guides for beginners and hobby growers — 23 of these are the crop guides above, not extra articles — plus 15 on growing for business.
- 10 recipes in the Cookbook and 8 guides on microgreens for pets.
- 7 articles on teaching with microgreens, 3 free self-paced courses in the Academy, and 4 toolkits for VET, schools, youth work and adult education.
- 123 published articles across the portal in total.
- A working urban growing space in Athens — real infrastructure, not a plan on paper. It hosts study visits and job shadowing, and partners are welcome to visit.
Everything we write is free to read, and openly licensed under CC BY 4.0 — you may use, adapt and republish it, including inside your own project, as long as you credit us. The licence terms spell out exactly what that covers. The papers in The Original Papers are other researchers’ work and keep their own licences.
Credentials you can check
We would rather you verified this than took our word for it. Every identifier below is registered with the European Commission and appears in its public registers.
- Legal name — EVROPAIKO ETHELONTIKO KAI EKPAIDEFTIKO KENTRO (European Voluntary and Educational Center), trading as EVEC Athens. Non-profit, founded 2017.
- Registered seat — Zografou, Athens, Greece. Working language — English.
- Identifiers — OID E10172681 · PIC 909448430. These are the numbers an application form asks for to add EVEC as a partner.
- The accreditations are in the Youth field — an Erasmus+ Youth accreditation (2023-1-EL02-KA150-YOU-000188397) and a European Solidarity Corps Quality Label (2023-1-EL02-ESC50-QLA-000195138), both valid to 2027. In VET, EVEC joins a consortium as a cooperation partner or as a host.
The methodology: this portal is the home of the microgreens methodology — one hands-on way of learning that works for any vocation and any age, running since 2025.
The organisation behind it: EVEC Athens (European Voluntary and Educational Center), an accredited Greek NGO working in European projects since 2017 · OID E10172681 · PIC 909448430 · Erasmus+ Youth accreditation 2023-1-EL02-KA150-YOU-000188397 · ESC Quality Label 2023-1-EL02-ESC50-QLA-000195138 — both valid until 2027. Verify in the EU organisation registry (search for OID E10172681), see the track record, or visit the organisation at evec.org.gr.
Where to find us
Addresses
Office and growing space
Polifimou 17, Zografou 157 71, Athens, Greece
Registered seat
Kallistratous 89, Zografou 157 71, Athens, Greece
Reach us
Email
erasmus@evec.org.gr — one inbox, it reaches the whole team
Phone
+30 694 557 2632
Follow along
Instagram @evec.microgreens · TikTok @evec.microgreens · Facebook @evec.microgreens
Thinking of working together?
Send one paragraph. Get three concrete ways forward.
Tell us about your project — the priority, the audience, the gap you are closing — and you will get three specific ways the microgreens methodology could add value to it. A real reply from the people who built it, not an autoresponder.
Send one paragraph →Working in VET? Vocational (VET) partnerships →
Not a project? Find your hook · Volunteer with us · erasmus@evec.org.gr
Co-funded by the European Union.
This portal presents the microgreens methodology; the organisation behind it is EVEC Athens — the European Voluntary and Educational Center (evec.org.gr). Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Open licence. Except where stated otherwise, the educational materials on this portal are licensed under CC BY 4.0 — free to use, adapt and share, including commercially, with credit. See the licence terms.
Accessibility. We aim for WCAG 2.1 AA and publish what does and does not yet meet it — see the accessibility statement. If anything here blocks you, tell us and we will send the material in a format that works for you.