Biovilla is a sustainability co-operative with a 10 year experience in social entrepreneurship and social innovation in Portugal. Established within the magnificent Natural Park of Serra da Arrábida, 45 min souht of Lisbon, since 2010 Biovilla has been developing activities in our four key areas: Nature and sustainable tourism; agro-forestry and organic farming; education for sustainability; and Sustainability consulting.

So far, it has been able to raise and invest 1M€ in our vision - through multiple sources such as Development funds, Social Entrepreneurship funds, Community Bonds and Crowfunding - allowing us to fulfill our Mission and gain recognition: Biovilla has been awarded the Best Practice in SDG12 by the Portuguese Business Association (2018, APEE), was recognised last year by the Municipality of Palmela with a medal of merit for our impact within the region (2017) and has long been a national reference as a learning, applied research and experimentation center for Sustainable solutions. Currently the cooperative employs three full-time staff, two part-time staff, two Portuguese interns, two international interns and a fluctuating team of work exchanges, volunteers and Woofers that can range from 2 to 8 depending on the season. It also worked with the Erasmus for Young Entreprenerus program being hosts of 3 EYE so far. Since 2014 Biovilla hosts and organizes on average twelve adult and youth trainings on diverse areas of Sustainability - from bio construction, to Organic farming, to SGD's trainings, to Conscious Marketing -, several yoga and meditation retreats, as well as regular visits from local schools and associations. In more recent years, requests from schools and universities has been on the rise and now has official protocols with three universities (Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal, IPAM and FCUL) not only to receive and mentor students up to Masters level but also cooperating on several projects, hosting project meetings or serving as a test site for innovative solutions and experiments.

In the early days of the project, it hosted several Youth in Action exchanges as well as Grundtivg training programs and helped local associations with their EVS's, however the focus progressively shifted more towards entrepreneurial education. Since 2014 the Education Centre has been training and mentoring social and sustainability entrepreneurs, not only within the SIRCLE (2014-2017) project but also in partnership with the Portuguese Institute of Social Entrepreneurship (IES) and the Portuguese Network of Leaders of the Third Sector (ESLIDER). Due to the success and the recognition given by its students, mentees and entrepreneurs this is an area that it feels increasingly mature and knowledgable in, and wishes to continue to expand and deepen, providing a big motivation to join in this application.