Month: July 2025

Hello everyone! My name is David, and I’m a 20-year-old law student from Santiago de Compostela, Galicia. I’m currently volunteering as an IVY Project Partner for the Interreg “Desafios Jovens” program.The General Directorate of Youth is my host organization, a department of the regional government of Galicia which develops several programs for the Galician youth. What is “Desafios Jovens” About?The “Desafios Jovens” project aims to promote quality employment and improve working conditions within the Galicia-North Portugal euroregion. It places a strong emphasis on supporting rural youth as well as green and social economy. Who’s Involved?This collaborative effort involves five main partners: General Directorate of Youth (Galicia) Official Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Services and Navigation from Santiago de Compostela (Galicia) Northern Regional Directorate of IPDJ (Portugal) National Federation of Youth Associations (FNAJ) (Portugal) Northern Regional Delegation (Portugal) How Are We Making an Impact? One of our key initiatives has been the itinerant office, which has visited several rural areas across Galicia. Its purpose is to provide young people with valuable information about job opportunities in both Galicia and Portugal, offer guidance on personal brand improvement, and provide training in digital competencies. My Role as a VolunteerMy two months on the project have been a truly positive and enriching experience. With my background in law, I’ve been able to assist with both activity promotion and the management of contracts. I also got the opportunity of interacting with people from different countries, mainly Portugal, with the same interests in volunteering programs as me. – David, IVY Project Partner at DIRECCIÓN XERAL DE XUVENTUDE, CONSELLERÍA DE CULTURA, LINGUA E XUVENTUDE (XUNTA DE GALICIA), for the Interreg project DESAFIOS JOVENS (YOUTH CHALLENGES), under the programme Interreg POCTEP. Learn more about Xunta de Galicia Click Here Learn more about Interreg project DESAFIOS JOVENS Click Here

My name is Yiannis, I’m 26 years old and from Greece. Over the past two months, I’ve been part of the Interreg Euro-MED Germ of Life project through the IVY (Interreg Volunteer Youth) programme. This transformative experience has allowed me to combine my climate science background with meaningful on-the-ground work, contributing to a wider Mediterranean effort focused on assessing and managing drought risk. Germ of Life: Uniting the Mediterranean for Climate Resilience The Germ of Life project is co-financed by the Interreg Euro-MED programme, bringing together ten partners from six Mediterranean European countries, namely Greece, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Cyprus. Its goal is the development of a digital drought risk preventative management system, focused on prediction and monitoring of drought severity, ultimately supporting ecosystem restoration and climate adaptation.  This initiative combines nature-based solutions (NBS) and cutting-edge digital technology: AI-powered early-warning tools, standardized drought indicators, shared monitoring frameworks, and pilot demonstrations, designed to help make local ecosystems across the Mediterranean more resilient. Together, these efforts represent a proactive, preventive strategy for drought risk management that is grounded in data, rooted in nature, and tailored for real-world impact. And the best part? The final tools and results will be available to anyone interested, and who wants to use them. My Role: Climate Data Analysis Within this framework, I serve primarily as a meteorological and climatological data analyst, focusing on rainfall, temperature, soil moisture, drought indices, and vegetation stress indicators, derived from models, satellites and meteorological stations. My host organization, the University of Patras, acts as the project’s scientific coordinator and advisor, overseeing data curation protocols and guiding the integration of this data into AI models, helping predict drought severity, frequency, and vulnerability across the targeted landscapes.   The Importance of Regional Engagement But science without community is incomplete. In Western Greece, and especially Aigialeia and the surrounding vineyard areas, we’ve launched pilot activities in collaboration with the Region of Western Greece (another major partner) and the Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics of the University of Patras. A highlight of these activities was the installation of a state-of-the-art meteorological station, that provides real-time local data, enhancing both our scientific monitoring network and the community’s understanding of environmental dynamics and climate change. Similar pilot initiatives took place, or are underway, in selected regions of Italy, Spain, and Portugal.  One of the most rewarding aspects has been bringing these tools to life for local farmers and vineyard owners, whose livelihoods depend on the land and its climate stability. With the invaluable help of the region of Western Greece, and through the visualization of results and simplified, hands-on communication, we have managed to engage an even larger percentage of local stakeholders. The response has been so positive that the regional government has installed two additional meteorological monitoring stations, with further plans and requests underway to expand the network. This is great news, as it allows for a better representation of Aigialeia’s climate, that is strongly affected by its complex geography! It also showcases the importance of data-driven solutions, and how they can empower local shareholders and communities. A Personal and Professional Transformation This hands-on outreach, combined with technical work, has made my volunteering experience incredibly well-rounded. It pushed me to step outside the comfort zone of data and try to communicate complex ideas in accessible ways.  What stood out the most was the shared sense of purpose. Despite the differences in background, we all recognize the urgency of protecting our ecosystems and preparing for a rapidly changing climate. And through cooperation, we’re able to develop more holistic, inclusive solutions. As “Germ of Life” progresses, I’m eager to see how our combined efforts in modeling, monitoring, and mobilizing, translate into greener, more drought-resilient communities. Personally, I’m inspired to continue on this path, blending environmental research with policy work that leads to practical, real-world impact. – Ioannis, IVY Project Partner at University of Patras, for the Interreg project GERM OF LIFE, under the programme Interreg Euro-MED. Learn more about University of Patras Click Here Learn more about Interreg project GERM OF LIFE Click Here

Hi, I’m Cecilia, currently volunteering with Community Land Trust Brussels as part of the Upcycling Trust project, supported by Interreg. My main role is in communication, which includes writing articles and newsletters, coordinating with partners across Europe, and helping make the work of the project more visible.  The project itself focuses on making housing both permanently affordable and sustainable, by renovating existing buildings using circular methods and placing the land where they are built on, under community ownership. It’s an efficient way to link climate goals with housing justice, something that feels increasingly urgent in many European cities. A big part of what I’ve been learning comes from the constant exchange with my colleagues and the advocacy team. I’ve realised how communication isn’t just about promotion, it’s also about supporting the broader goals of the project. The way we talk about our work shapes how people understand the issues, and that’s especially important when we’re trying to influence policy. This experience has given me a clearer sense of how EU-funded projects operate, and how different partners cooperate across countries. It’s also helped me develop my skills, from writing for different audiences to managing updates across multiple pilot sites. I’m happy to be part of something that shows how local, community-driven solutions can have relevance far beyond their neighbourhoods! – Cecilia, IVY Project Partner at Community Land Trust Brussels, for the Interreg project Upcycling Trust, under the programme Interreg North West Europe. Learn more about Community Land Trust Brussels Click Here Learn more about Interreg project Upcycling Trust Click Here

Hello! My name is Nuria Oller Vivet and I am currently an IVY Reporter volunteer at the Finnova Foundation, based in Brussels (Belgium), as part of the Interreg Volunteer Youth (IVY) programme within the Hub Iberia Agrotech (HIBA+) project, a cross-border cooperation initiative between Spain and Portugal. “Interreg” refers to European Territorial Cooperation (ETC), one of the two main objectives of the European Union’s Cohesion Policy, which aims to reduce disparities between regions and countries. Interreg seeks to implement joint actions and policy exchanges between EU Member States through different programmes like ours. The main goal of the HIBA+ project is to drive the digital transformation of the agri-food sector in the Spain-Portugal cross-border region. It focuses on creating an open, collaborative and multisectoral digital innovation ecosystem that fosters entrepreneurship and the internationalisation of SMEs. As an IVY volunteer, I work closely with the communication and marketing departments, contributing to the development of the project’s communication strategy: from creating content for social media to designing graphic materials for training sessions and events, producing and recording videos for the YouTube channel, and helping organise events. All materials and actions aim to maximise the project’s outreach and reach as many beneficiaries as possible. Thanks to this experience, I have been able to strengthen key skills such as intercultural communication, digital event management, audiovisual editing, multilingual institutional writing, and teamwork in multicultural and high-pressure environments. Every day is an opportunity to learn, both on a technical and a personal level. In addition, being part of Finnova has allowed me to contribute to other European projects led by the foundation from its offices in Brussels and Spain, broadening my perspective and understanding of the European innovation and cooperation ecosystem. This experience has been key in confirming my interest in continuing to develop my career in European communication, territorial innovation, and international cooperation projects. I want to keep following this path while remaining open to exploring new sectors where I can apply what I’ve learned, continue growing, and acquire new skills. My time at HIBA+ has been enriching in every sense, and I am truly grateful for the opportunity to learn, contribute, and be part of a project with such transformative potential. – Nuria, IVY Project Partner at Finnova foundation, for the Interreg project HIBA+, under the programme Interreg POCTEP. Learn more about Finnova Foundation Click Here Learn more about Interreg project HIBA+ Click Here

In a fragmented world, dialogue is not just a method, but a necessity. Now more than ever, the tourism sector faces a variety of challenges, such as overtourism, seasonal instability, issues related to climate change, and crises like Covid-19, affecting millions of people’s lives every day. In the past, these challenges received little to no attention. Discussions about tourism tended to focus only on growth and expansion, ignoring the problems beneath the surface. Without open and structured conversations between institutions, communities, and individuals, these problems went unaddressed for a long period of time. Thus, the need for renewed EU cooperation became apparent, leading to the creation of the Interreg Euro-MED project Dialogue4Tourism. Dialogue4Tourism, at its core, is a governance project, meaning it focuses on how decisions are made and who is involved, in order to allow sustainable tourism to bloom in a coordinated and inclusive way across borders. From EU entities to local authorities, the project aims to establish a permanent institutional conversation that will aid the circular development of tourism and reshape the way the sector works in our world, actively contributing to our society. By encouraging meaningful exchange across governance levels, between people with different perspectives, the project is creating relationships that can support long-term transformation. Dialogue4Tourism puts dialogue at the heart of its mission because sustainable tourism cannot happen in isolation, but with collaboration. As part of the Interreg Volunteer Youth (IVY) initiative, I have had the opportunity to assist this project by supporting the D4T Digital Awareness days, brainstorming social media ideas, as well as supporting the preparation of the Sustainable Tourism Policy Lab (STPL), drafting press releases and sharing ideas on the recent white paper. Additionally, participating in the project’s events and workshops has allowed me to observe how EU cooperation projects function, including the complexity of coordination between institutions, stakeholders, and project partners from multiple countries. It became increasingly clear how projects, such as Dialogue4Tourism, promote cross-border collaboration, how they empower regional voices, and how they turn sustainability goals into structured missions. Experiences such as these make us even more appreciative of the enormous amount of planning and effort that goes into European Territorial Cooperation, especially when working on fields as dynamic and sensitive as tourism and sustainability. As a Tourism Administration student passionate about sustainability, youth engagement, and European cooperation, this project felt like a direct connection between what I studied and what I wanted to contribute to. Dialogue4Tourism stood out to me not just because of its ambition, but because of the values it brings forward. It has been very refreshing to learn that there are projects that support local communities in the Mediterranean, promote smarter governance, and create policy spaces, all to invite youth, civil society, and institutions to co-create and support the future of tourism. When I entered the IVY programme, I was filled with excitement and enthusiasm. Now, not even two months later, this excitement has turned into inspiration and motivation, determined that no matter what it takes, we have to create something meaningful across all borders, producing real change and better futures, that we have to create a dialogue. – Alexandra, IVY Project Partner at European Public Law Organisation (EPLO), for the Interreg project Dialogue4Tourism, under the programme Interreg Euro-MED. Learn more about European Public Law Organisation (EPLO) Click Here Learn more about Interreg project Dialogue4Tourism Click Here

Hello fellow IVY adventurers, My name is Alexis, 26 years old and I am currently an IVY Partner for the Interreg Euro-MED project Wetland4Change. Hosted by the Tour du Valat, in the heart of the Camargue and the Rhône delta in southern France, one of the biggest river deltas of the Mediterranean region. The Tour du Valat is a research institute specialized in wetlands monitoring, preservation and restoration in the Mediterranean region.  It has only been almost two months since I started this volunteering program and I still have more to explore, yet I am excited to share with you a part of this amazing so-far experience. The Project The Interreg Euro-MED – Wetland4Change  project connects 5 Mediterranean countries (Spain, France, Italy, Bulgaria and my country of origin, Greece) in order to validate solutions based on wetland conservation and restoration for a better climate change adaptation and mitigation. Each of the 6 international partner organizations has a specific task. The Tour du Valat, in instance, is in charge of the second out of the three main work packages of the Wetland4Change program which consists of the assessment of each pilot site’s potential to regulate floods and the zones in risk. It is one of the two natural environmental services (ES) of wetlands that are studied through this program. The second service studied is the potential of wetlands to sequestrate, or in other words to capture carbon. Wetlands are much more efficient on capturing and stocking atmospheric carbon emissions than forests and so they can naturally serve as a great solution to mitigate climate change in the Mediterranean zone. The tools created by this project will then be transferred to policymakers in the Euro-Med region in order to address the climate crisis at both local and territorial levels. A transfer plan is going to be created in order to make these science-based tools more accessible to the users, which could be farmers, school teachers, scientists, environmental activists, regional policymakers or even just tourists. I do personally believe that everyone can benefit from this and similar projects, as wetlands are linked to various domains, such as agriculture, animal greasing, tourism, biodiversity and can generally be linked to better, as in healthier, life conditions. My role as IVY Project Partner As an IVY Project Partner hosted by the Tour du Valat, I am supporting their work in the second Work Package of the Wetland4Change project, which implies the creation of maps assessing the potential of each pilot site to regulate floods. There is a focus in areas where land use, vegetation cover or population distribution could be useful to better manage or restore and the methodology will be applied for all 5 pilot sites studied, so regular communication with all the partners is necessary. A part of my work is also to apply the Transfer Plans through the Tour du Valat organization and their local stakeholder partners. In September I will be organizing, with the help of my mentor and his team an event for the local partners, in order to exchange all the information and data collected through this project and better evaluate all together the preservation and restoration plans and laws that might have to be put in order to better adapt these regions to climate change. Wetland4Change Living Lab in Sardinia, Italy Last month, the 13th and 14th of May, the first Living Lab of Wetland4Change took place in Italy between Cagliari and Marceddì in Sardinia, organized by the Italian project partner MedSea. I had the honour to participate in this initiative as an IVY Project Partner and of course also representing the Tour du Valat, along with my mentor. It was a really interesting and productive opportunity for me to meet all the partners, discuss the next steps to follow around each specific study site and especially get to know and exchange with stakeholders and policymakers from all partner countries, including mayors, ONGs and even ministry representatives. A struggle specific to the scientific community that was treated during this workshop and which happens also to be a field I want to follow professionally is science dissemination and public awareness. All participants agreed that it is really important that the science-based tools produced through this project should be accessible to all stakeholders, policymakers and communities but also have to be user-friendly, especially when the subject is not something easy to visualize or to empathize with. To finish with, I would like to add that I know already that in the Tour du Valat, where I happen to do my volunteering program through the Interreg Volunteer Youth Initiative, being surrounded by passionate researchers, nature lovers and birdwatching enthusiasts, I will also get to grow in this community and have a really valuable experience here. Being part of such projects rooting for environmental restoration, biodiversity preservation and a better future adapted to climate change is one of my long-term life aspirations and is something I will definitely be looking up to even after this volunteering finishes. – Alexis, IVY Project Partner at Tour du Valat Foundation, for the Interreg project Wetland4Change, under the programme Interreg Euro – MED. Learn more about Tour du Valat Foundation Click Here Learn more about Interreg project Wetland4Change Click Here