MEDiterranean Youth for Creative Impact (2025 – 2027)
Acronym: MedYCI
The MedYCI project aims to help young people adapt to new fields of work and strengthen their active civic participation by developing their digital, creative and analytical skills. Carried out through collaboration between artists and interdisciplinary experts from five Mediterranean countries, the project promotes lifelong learning and regional solidarity by developing innovative educational methods.
200 young people from Turkey, France, Spain, Tunisia and Egypt will be trained by co-developing and applying innovative learning methods that foster engagement and strengthen professional skills – digital, creative and analytical – while addressing Mediterranean challenges.
As part of the project, 200 young people aged between 18 and 30 will take part in a joint training programme comprising analytical, creative and practical modules. In addition, MedYCI Studios to be established in each partner country will function as centres for continuous skills development and innovation, managed by young people, and will reach at least a further 500 young people.
Thanks to this infrastructure, young people will organise international WebTV broadcasts (MedTalks) and creative events to advocate for their causes at a regional level. The project will also support 50 young entrepreneurs, highlighting examples of positive social change. To ensure the project’s sustainability, a MedYCI Handbook and an e-learning platform will be developed.
MedYCI aims to provide innovative solutions to common challenges in the Mediterranean region, such as educational inequalities, the digital divide and youth unemployment.
Project Partners
Les Têtes de l'Art (Lead Partner) 
Centre International de Développement Pour La Gouvernance Local Innovante(PP1) Country
Tunisia
Region
Tunis
Anna Lindh Foundation(PP2) Country
Egypt
Pi Youth Association(PP3) 
European Institute of the Mediterranean(PP4)
The framing around “Mediterranean Youth for Creative Impact” is what caught my attention here — specifically the audiovisual focus. That is a deliberately narrow entry point, and in my experience working with young applicants in third-level admissions, specificity like that actually increases uptake rather than limiting it. Young people respond better to “this is exactly for someone like you” than to broad eligibility criteria.
One thing worth considering for the selection process: the 2025–2027 window sits against a backdrop of genuinely uneven youth employment conditions across the Mediterranean basin and, curiously, across other EU-adjacent regions too. I have been thinking lately about how youth unemployment data in different corners of Europe — places you might not immediately associate with Mediterranean programming — can quietly shape who actually applies for these opportunities. Economic pressure at home is a real filter on participation, even in well-funded schemes.
The Interreg framework is solid, and the partner geography looks well distributed. But I would be curious whether the project coordinators have built any flexibility into the application process to account for applicants coming from contexts where digital infrastructure or prior production experience is less available — because the audiovisual field, more than most, rewards prior access. Is that a dimension the consortium has discussed?