This project builds on the success of the previously funded Leonardo project 'Euracademy’ (European Summer Academy for Sustainable Rural Development), which created innovative material and delivery methods for non-formal learning aimed at teaching providers, certification agents and recipients in rural economy/society. The aim of the current project is to promote, via the project's wide partnership network, policies and practices for validation and certification in lifelong learning that reflect the skills and competencies necessary for enhanced sustainable rural development. The project will produce eleven national reports, presenting policies and systems for validation and certification of informal and non-formal learning. These reports will feed into a synthesis report of typologies and the 'state of the art' in validation/certification, which will present the needs of people working in rural areas and the needs of different validation/certification agencies. A 'confidence map' of different economic sectors will be produced with respect to existing certification/accreditation and a flexible system of validation and accreditation in learning, based on Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning, will be developed focusing upon sustainable rural development. These ideas will be piloted with the project network through universities, training institutes and non-formal training providers. The mid-term and final project results will be disseminated widely amongst a range of stakeholders, via two European conferences and eleven national workshops. A dedicated project website will be used as the principal communication medium for the project's target groups and a link will be made to the existing 'Euracademy' website.