IMBA Europe Receives Funding for a Trail Builder Training Project

The three-year project will focus on developing educational resources and frameworks for mountain bike trail building, design, construction, maintenance, and management in Europe.
Photo: IMBA Europe

Several member nations of IMBA Europe have been awarded €387,731 through the EU’s Erasmus+ program to design a trail builder training project. The aim of the project is to create educational resources and frameworks for future trail building, design, construction, maintenance, and management. The population of mountain bikers across the European continent is rapidly growing, and developing a system for creating sustainable, purpose-built tracks is paramount.

“We have identified the need for a certification regime for the trail building profession, and the DIRTT project will allow us to create a solid base for future development in this sector,” says IMBA EU president Thomas Larsen Schmidt. The organizations involved in the project come from a variety of backgrounds, including tourism, advocacy, sports associations, and government education institutions. The groups involved are spread across Norway, Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland, Denmark, and Portugal.

According to the Erasmus+ website, “Erasmus+ is the EU’s program to support education, training, youth, and sport in Europe. Its budget of €14.7 billion will provide opportunities for over 4 million Europeans to study, train, and gain experience abroad. Set to last until 2020, Erasmus+ doesn’t just have opportunities for students. Merging seven prior programs, it has opportunities for a wide variety of individuals and organizations.”

Look for more exciting news from IMBA EU chapters in the coming months.