VFDF personnel act as visiting lecturers on the topic of developing and commercializing innovations delivering strong sustainability for food systems. They also aid teaching staff in connecting with actors in the VFDF network (over 130 agrifood related actors) for education related collaborations.
VFDF designed and piloted two innovation courses for the University of Helsinki faculty of agriculture and forestry in 2021-2022, with hands-on commercialization knowhow and expert guest lecturers from its agrifood network:
In this course VFDF gives a guest lecture.
In this course VFDF gives a guest lecture and provides evaluators for student pitches.
Lectures and final demo gala of this course are provided by EIT Food for students in several European universities. VFDF provides extra support, e.g., pitching training, for the University of Helsinki students taking the course.
Viikki Food Design Factory, the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry and Blokgarden offer the students of the faculty an opportunity to participate in an urban farming pilot as micro-entrepreneurs through a project course (AGRI-295) in April-September 2025. The course is 5-15 study credits depending on the amount of work.