The University of the Mountains is a non-profit voluntary organization, member of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization - Mountain Partnership.
It was set up in Crete in 2008 and since then academics of the University of Crete and major foreign universities, intellectuals, artisans, shepherds, farmers, weavers of rural Crete, are aiming to preserve and study the way of life of mountain communities, through the revival of natural sources of wealth, the continuous medical support of the inhabitants, the discouraging of the abandonment of villages and the non-exhaustion of natural riches.