The Euracademy Association was established in January 2004 in Athens Greece as a European non-profit membership organisation, in order to promote capacity building in rural areas and take forward the successful activities of the Euracademy project which was co-funded by the Leonardo da Vinci programme until 2003.
The Euracademy Association draws together at present 14 corporate members, mainly higher educational institutions, and over 100 individual members with a professional and perennial commitment to rural development, aiming to promote capacity building in rural areas and mobilise animators and managers of rural development. For this purpose the Association organises and holds at themes pertinent to rural development, every year at least one Summer Academy and conducts research and studies as well as e-learning courses. By providing these activities, Euracademy Association offers an opportunity to its members to improve their skills, widen their experience and expand their professional qualifications by starting a personal itinerary of lifelong learning while also creating ample space for networking and cooperation in the framework of European projects.
The website of the Euracademy Association, http://www.euracademy.org/, is a rich informational resource on a variety of issues related to capacity building in rural areas, including the activities of the Association.

The Carpathian Foundation, established in 1994, is a unique, cross-border regional foundation that provides grants and technical assistance to NGOs and local governments, focusing primarily on inter-regional, economic development and transfrontier activities. It encourages the development of public/private/NGO partnerships, including cross-border and inter-ethnic approaches to promote regional and community development and to help prevent conflicts.
The Carpathian Foundation promotes good relations, social stability, and economic progress in the bordering regions of Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine. It does so by providing financial and technical assistance to projects which will result in tangible benefits to the communities on both sides of national borders and which will improve the quality of life of the people in the cities and small towns of the Carpathian Mountains.