Are you a young researcher striving to participate in debates on security, political and social developments in the Euro-Mediterranean area?

Conceived and funded by the IEMed, the Youth Forum, gathering over 30 participants from over 10 countries, offers a unique opportunity to debate and exchange with policy makers and other young experts on key issues in the Euro-Mediterranean area and to contribute to policy shaping in the region.

The Forum aims to build and empower a thriving community of young researchers in Euro- Mediterranean affairs and increase the visibility of their work. Organised around two parallel working sessions, practical workshop and a plenary session, the forum offers a chance to share your experiences and issue concrete proposals on relevant topics.

This year´s edition of the forum will  focus on online and offline youth activism in the Euro-Mediterranean region. 

The Forum will take place in Barcelona on 16-17 June, prior to the EuroMeSCo Annual Conference “Civil Society and Social Movements in the Euro-Mediterranean Region”.

See the full programme of  the event 

Against this background, the aim of this call is to select up to 15 young researchers and students from the Euro-Mediterranean region to:
– Participate and intervene actively in the Youth Forum, on the basis of a 1-2-pages concept note they will have handed ahead of the meeting.
– Take part in the EuroMeSCo Annual Conference “Civil Society and Social Movements in the Euro-Mediterranean Region”, to be held on 18-19 June in Barcelona, gathering over 120 stakeholders, including researchers, academics, national and regional policy makers and practitioners

WHO CAN APPLY?
The candidates shall:
– be students or researchers under 35 years with at least a B.A degree
– be affiliated to a research centre or a university based in one of the 43 UfM countries

HOW TO APPLY?
In order to apply, please fill in the APPLICATION FORM

Short proposal (up to 350 words) should be related to one of the following two topics of the parallel working sessions:

1. YOUTH ONLINE ACTIVISM – A DRIVER OF CHANGE?

The first decades of XXI century, and in particular since the economic crisis, saw increased mobilisations on online platforms of young people across the Euro-Mediterranean eager to make things change. The aim of the session is to track current youth online activism and initiatives in selected Euro-Mediterranean countries, identify trends and major issues around which young people in the Euro-Med region mobilise, determine the factors enabling or hindering the increased online activism (i.e surveillance, online literacy), as well as reflect on to what extent youth online activism translates into increased political engagement offline.

2. YOUTH OFFLINE ACTIVISM : SIMILARITIES AND DIVERGENCES ACROSS THE EURO-MED REGION

Last years have witnessed an increased offline activism and mobilisations of youth both in Europe and in the MENA region. Some similar patterns can be observed across the Euro-Med region including the tenuous political affiliation or ideological references of those mobilisations and the focus on practical and concrete goals. The session will aim at analysing those patterns as well as of the profile of mobilized youth across the Euro-Med and the level of regional cooperation and connections between them. It will also dwell on how authorities and more traditional segments of civil society reply to an increased youth offline activism.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

– In addition to filling in the application form, please send your CV to Aleksandra Chmielewska at achmielewska@iemed.org by 30 April 2019.

– The selection process will be completed by 6 May 2019.

– Selected participants will be asked to prepare a concept note between 1-2 pages ahead of the meeting.

– Travel and accomodation expenses of selected participants will be covered.

– Selected participants will be provided with detailed information about the logistics and operational aspects of the forum.

– After the conference, best concept notes may be published in the form of a EuroMeSCo Policy
Brief (about 3000 words).