Official launch of the EUSEEDS project: boosting young people's employability in the Mediterranean region

On September 3, 2025, the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) Middle East officially launched the EUSEEDS project (Enable, Upgrade and Spread Employability, Entrepreneurship and Digital Skills of the Eastern Mediterranean youth through dedicated university centers), co-financed by the European Union as part of the Interreg NEXT MED program.

Led by the AUF in Lebanon, this ambitious project aims to strengthen the employability, entrepreneurial spirit and digital skills of young people in the Eastern Mediterranean, by supporting the creation and consolidation of dedicated university centers.

The total budget for the EUSEEDS project is 2,808,499.10 million euros, of which 2,499,564.20 million (89%) is being funded by the European Union as part of the Interreg NEXT MED program.

The kick-off meeting, organized online by AUF, brought together all the project partners: Center for Social Innovation (CSICY, Cyprus), Enroot (Egypt), Aix-Marseille Université (France), Jordan Youth Innovation Forum (JYIF, Jordan), Forward MENA (Lebanon) and Palestine Information and Communications Technology Incubator (PICTI, Palestine).

This kick-off meeting provided an opportunity to establish a dynamic of collaboration and cohesion between the partners, to present the objectives, expected results and activities of the project, to address financial and communication aspects, and to launch the operational calendar for the first half of the year.

In his opening remarks, Jean-Noël Baléo, Regional Director of the AUF Middle East, underlined the ambition and social dimension of this project, which aims to produce massive effects with short, medium and long-term impacts, and to do so by creating sustainable university structures.

The first concrete step in the project will be the launch of a call for applications to select 20 beneficiary universities in five partner countries(Cyprus, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine). These establishments will be supported in developing or strengthening their employability centers, which are genuine levers of transition between academic training and the professional integration of young people.

With EUSEEDS, the AUF and its partners, with the support of the European Union, confirm their shared commitment to ensuring that Mediterranean youth are better prepared for the challenges of the job market, and able to contribute actively to the region's economic and social development.

Source: www.auf.org/