Volunteering for the French National Authority of Interreg POCTEFA
I am Florian and I’m a 23 years old French volunteer participating in the INTERREG POCTEFA programme as an IVY volunteer. This is a European territorial cooperation programme created to promote the sustainable development of the border territory between France, Andorra and Spain. The POCTEFA 2021-2027 programme is the fifth generation of Community financial aid aimed at strengthening the economic and social integration of this area. It co-finances cross-border cooperation projects designed and managed by actors from both sides of the Pyrenees and from the coastal areas participating in the Programme, safeguarding the intelligent, sustainable and inclusive development of the territory. Several local and regional institutions are involved in the management of this European programme, among which the French region of Nouvelle Aquitaine which is the French National Authority of POCETFA, where I am doing my 6 months of volunteering. As part of my duties, I am involved in the instruction of the projects that were presented in the first call of this new edition of the programme and I attend various meetings and events of the POCTEFA, such as its monitoring, its evolutions, the technical and political part, etc… It is really rewarding to contribute to such a meaningful cause. By sharing my experiences as an IVY volunteer, I want to raise awareness of the Interreg POCTEFA programme and teach about cooperation within the EU. I have gained valuable knowledge about EU Cohesion Policy, discovered several projects and seen how European regions sharing the same border work together to promote common policies and actions that bring the two countries closer together. It is important to spread the word and publicise the positive impact of the EU in our area as many cross-border projects have been made possible thanks to EU policies and ERDF funds. As an example of the achievements of the POCTEFA programme, I was able to attend a few days after my arrival in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, a cross-border seminar, held in the city of Jaca in Aragon, where the micro-projects that were financed were presented, then the other corporations that exist on the Spanish-French border were presented to inform them and invite them to set up other cross-border projects. Seminar “des microprojets à d’autres projets” 2023 – F.Hardouin – 10/05/23 – Jaca, España It was a very interesting event during which I was able to meet several institutions and people who play an important role in the cooperation between France and Spain. It is very encouraging to see the success of the projects and more generally of the calls for proposals financed by the EU, which are the fruit of important joint work between members of several States. Euroregion headquarters – F.HArdouin – 31/05/23 – Hendaye, France I have also been able to work on the call for Euroregional citizenship of the Territorial Grouping of Territorial Cooperation Euroregion Nouvelle Aquitaine – Euskadi – Navarre. I have participated in the instruction of the projects, their follow-up, several meetings and trips to the headquarters of this organisation on the Spanish-French border, in Hendaye. The Euroregion participates in projects of the POCTEFA programme and from this edition 2021/27, manages a part of the programme for a functional area West of the border, within the priority 6 of the programme ‘territorially, socially and economically vertebrate the space’. It is very interesting to see how this cooperation is organised and how all these institutional actors cooperate with each other, thanks to the European frameworks that have allowed all this. In addition, this period of volunteering allowed me to get to know better the institutional body in which I was volunteering with several professionals in cross-border cooperation. I was also able to follow the political life of the institution by observing the debates in the plenary sessions that took place and thus better understand how this body implemented national and European policies in its territory through the decision-making processes. Plenary Assembly of Nouvelle Aquitaine region – F.Hardouin – 12/06/23 – Bordeaux, France My participation in the INTERREG POCTEFA programme has been personally rewarding as it has contributed to my personal growth, skills development and knowledge of Spanish-French-Andorran cross-border cooperation. Attending the workshops and witnessing the progress of the project has allowed me to learn a lot about the subject and has helped me to write my Master’s thesis that I have done in relation to this experience. It has also instilled in me values of solidarity through collaboration with people from different places both within the diverse team of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and with the Spanish counterparts. Overall, this experience as an IVY volunteer has provided me with valuable values and has contributed to my personal and professional development. – Florian, IVY Reporter for the French National Authority for the programme Interreg POCTEFA. Discover more about Interreg POCTEFA Click Here
DISCOVERING THE EUROPEAN CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION BETWEEN FRANCE AND ITALY
Salut tout le monde – Ciao a tutte e a tutti ! I am Antonella, I am Italian, and I have been volunteering as an IVY Reporter at the Managing Authority of the Interreg Program France Italy ALCOTRA in Lyon. ALCOTRA stands for Alpes Latines COopération TRAnsfrontalière/ Alpi Latine COoperazione TRAnsfrontaliera (Latin Alps Cross-border Cooperation). As suggested by the name, ALCOTRA is a cross-border program financed by the European Union aiming to strengthen cohesion in the Alpine area between France and Italy. The French and Italian regions and counties involved in the Program are the following: Haute-Savoie, Savoie, Hautes-Alpes, Alpes de Haute-Provence, Alpes-Maritimes, Valle d’Aosta, Torino, Cuneo, and Imperia. During the current 2021-2027 programming, ALCOTRA will be funding several projects in line with the European’s Union five major challenges: innovation and research; environment; social inclusion; territorial approach; overcoming cross-border barriers. The ALCOTRA Managing Authority is the French Region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes which oversees the implementation of the Program. The managing authority is supported by the Joint Secretariat, based in Turin, which ensures the instruction and the follow-up of the projects. The Monitoring Committee, made up of each partner involved in the Program, is the decision-making body. In July 2022, the ALCOTRA Youth Council was launched with an advisory role. It is the first Youth Council in a European cross-border program aiming to give young people a voice on cross-border issues. As an IVY volunteer, my mission is to support the communication strategy of the Program as well as the ALCOTRA Youth Council activities. My tasks include writing articles for the ALCOTRA website and posts for social networks. In May, during the Month of Europe, I contributed to promoting European values and ALCOTRA territorial missions at several events. I helped with the organization of the webinar on the renewal of the ALCOTRA Youth Council, as well as a webinar on the application of horizontal principles in projects funded by ALCOTRA. One of the best moments of my volunteering experience has been my participation at the event Transnational Citizen Dialogue, organized by Europe Direct in Lyon. The aim of the meeting was to highlight the crucial role of European projects on our territories in making European values alive. In this sense, Interreg ALCOTRA is a concrete example of a successful territorial cooperation program between two European countries aiming to develop common solutions to diversified transnational challenges. And I am honestly grateful to be a part of it! – Antonella, IVY Reporter for the Managing Authority Interreg France-Italy ALCOTRA Discover more about the Interreg proramme ALCOTRA Click Here
The AYCH project through the eyes of an IVY volunteer
¡Hola a tod@s! My name is Amina, I come from Italy and I’ve been doing my IVY Volunteering experience for a month and a half now. I am currently volunteering with Vida Láctea in Lugo, Galicia as part of the AYCH communication team. You may ask: what is AYCH? AYCH stands for Atlantic Youth Creative Hubs and it’s an Interreg project developed by an international partnership between 5 countries (Spain, Portugal, France, Ireland and the UK) in the European Atlantic area. Its main goal is to promote entrepreneurship and youth employment, and to develop new approaches and interventions in support services for young people across the Atlantic space in the creative sector, connecting people, ideas, skills, technologies and companies in a network of hubs, in order to unlock the creative potential of young entrepreneurs. By hosting events such as Hackathons and Creative Jams, AYCH wants to create awareness around specific matters that affect the youth of these areas and to try and solve them through prototyping in international groups. During these events the participants are split into groups of 4 – 6 people and are assigned firstly a topic to work on, and secondly, a mentor to help them coordinate. The groups are given two or three days (depending on the length of the event) to prototype their ideas and prepare for the final presentation. This will happen on the last day in front of a jury that will then elect the winning team(s) and then give them prizes. The programme is aimed at young motivated people from the European Atlantic area that want to discover new ways of thinking, create ideas and collaborate in a transnational environment. Every partner finds a group of young participants, mentors and experts that will take part in the event. For every event there’s a hosting partner, while the others tend to take care of the communication and the promotion of the event. As part of AYCH’s communication team I take care of the promotion of the project. More specifically, I am responsible for social media posts and video editing before and after every event. I am truly surprised by how much I like my tasks here. Before coming here I had just a little experience in promoting events, so I got here without much expectations. Every single day I learn new things in the communication field and I am really motivated to remain in this particular sector after my experience. 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.elementor-gallery__item-overlay-bg,.e-gallery-item:hover .elementor-gallery__item-overlay-content,.e-gallery-item:hover .elementor-gallery__item-overlay-content__description,.e-gallery-item:hover .elementor-gallery__item-overlay-content__title{opacity:1}a.elementor-item.elementor-gallery-title{color:var(–galleries-title-color-normal)}a.elementor-item.elementor-gallery-title.elementor-item-active,a.elementor-item.elementor-gallery-title.highlighted,a.elementor-item.elementor-gallery-title:focus,a.elementor-item.elementor-gallery-title:hover{color:var(–galleries-title-color-hover)}a.elementor-item.elementor-gallery-title.elementor-item-active{color:var(–gallery-title-color-active)} – Amina, IVY Project Partner in Vida Lactea, for the Atlantic Youth Creative Hubs – AYCH Interreg project, under the Programme Interreg Atlantic Area Discover more about Interreg AYCH Click Here Discover more about Host Organization Vida Lactea Click Here
Volunteering for Interreg Italy-Slovenia
Hello everyone, My name is Francesco, I’m 26, it has been almost a month since I started this great experience. As an Interreg Volunteer I joined the Managing Authority of the Interreg VI-A Italy-Slovenia 2021-2027 Programme in Trieste, Italy. So far, everything is going well, being a volunteer is a very rich experience at both personal and professional level. My involvement at the Managing Authority consists in supporting communication with the aim to promote the work of the Programme and European Territorial Cooperation. I had the chance to work on several different tasks, making the work interesting. By now I’ve done things such as translation, data revisions, participate to EU meetings, writing reports, post news and events on website and sharing social media content. From the very first moment I arrived, I was warmly welcomed by my colleagues. They are available for any kind of questions or problems that may occur. It is a great opportunity to volunteer in a multicultural city on the Italian Slovenian border. Also on work place all thoughts and task are shared in both languages, embodying the European spirit. To improve teamwork and connection between co-workers we also share a meal all together once a week. – Francesco, IVY Reporter at the Managing Authority for the programme Interreg Italy – Slovenia Discover more about the Interreg Italy – Slovenia programme Click Here
My experience as IVY Reporter in Venice!
Hello everyone! My name is Laura, I’m italian and it’s been a month since I started my experience as IVY Reporter at the Italian National Contact Point for the Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE Programme at Regione Veneto. The Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE Programme is a European funding programme that encourages transnational cooperation projects to make regions and cities more resilient to common challenges. Thought the European Regional Development Fund, its goal is to create a smarter, greener, better connected and more integrated central Europe. More specifically, the Italian NCP is appointed to provide information to potential applicants, suggest and assist beneficiaries, communicate programme achievements and support programme management. As soon as I arrived to the office I have been involved in communication activities such as social media content creation, implementation of the new regional website, and organizing the European Cooperation Day in September. The main aim of my daily task is to disseminate to the community/general public the outputs produced by project fianced during the first call financed by the programme 2021-2027of the project in our territory. Since the beginning, I have been supported by the team, which not only warmly welcomed but also always give me the right directions and advises in order to improve the daily tasks and understand more in detail all the process of the programme. Even it is only been a month since I am here, I feel I am really improving my communication and organizational skills and I cannot wait to see what the next months will bring me! – Laura, IVY Reporter for the Italian National Contact Point for Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE Programme Discover more about Interreg Central Europe Click Here
I’m volunteering for the IDEA project!
Hello friends, my name is Gabriela and I got the opportunity of volunteering for Interreg North West Europe project “IDEA”, in Belgium. This is a very important project that seeks for new sustainable resources for food/feed & chemicals in North West Europe region, in order to supply our growing population with the least possible environmental impact. In this scenario the microalgae come as protagonists, first because of their high nutritional content and others valuable components, and second because of the environmental advantages of their production, especially if included in a circular production system. Because of the great prosperity of this renewable resource, and because of the climate similarities, partners from Belgium, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Ireland and UK are working together with Interreg for the IDEA project, in which much effort is being made to optimize the entire process chain based on microalgae. Therefore, different companies and universities are necessary in this project whether is to research and give information or to do the testings and the practical work of the different sectors of production, from cultivation to processing and formulating products. As a volunteer, I’m working in the communication area of a dairy farm in Temse, Belgium, called Heirbaut ALgriculture, that is focused on shifting from animal-based to plant-based production. There they have a big microalgae cultivation system and they use this resource in their dairy products to make it more tasteful and healthier. Moreover, this microalgae cultivation is included in the milk production chain of the farm, serving as a pathway for leftover carbon dioxide from cow production. You can follow us on Instagram for more details! https://www.instagram.com/heirbaut.algriculture/ I am enjoying this experience because, as a recent graduate biologist, I feel like I can participate in a very important cause and make a difference by talking about a subject that I really like! – Gabriela, IVY Project Partner for the Interreg project IDEA, under the programme Interreg North-West Europe, at Heirbaut aLgriculture CV Discover more about the Interreg project IDEA Click Here Discover more about the Host Organization Heirbaut aLgriculture CV Click Here
