Isola Catania is the social-innovation hub that enables the potential of the new generations in Sicily, turning skills into work, ideas into enterprises, and staying into a choice.
A social enterprise and Certified B Corporation, we design and deliver education, entrepreneurship and culture programmes from Palazzo Biscari, in the heart of Catania.
We are looking for partners across Europe, to apply together and to build together.
Let’s apply togetherWhy Sicily, why now
Sicily is classified as a less developed region under EU Cohesion Policy 2021-2027 (the successor of the convergence objective), with GDP per head below 75% of the EU average, one of the highest shares of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) in the European Union, and an emigration of talent that empties the island of its future.
This is exactly where Erasmus+, Horizon, CERV, ESF+ and the cohesion instruments are designed to make a difference, and where a well-built project scores on relevance, inclusion and impact. A partner rooted in Catania gives a consortium geographic balance, direct access to under-represented target groups, and a credible story of European added value in the Euro-Mediterranean area.
We didn’t come here to write proposals: we aim here to change these numbers. Our mission is to make young people protagonists, giving them spaces, programmes and meaningful connections to build their future in Sicily, and make it a better island. European partnerships are one of the ways we keep that promise.
Roles we can take
Coordinator or partner, we carry our share of the project, and the parts that are hardest to find on paper: people, places and a community that shows up.
We have participated in Erasmus+ KA2 projects as lead applicants. We know both sides of the table: writing and delivering.
2,960 participants in 2025: students, NEETs aged 18-29, youth 18-35, young women entering entrepreneurship, adult learners +35, cultural workers, recruited through free programmes, school networks and a coalition of 100+ organisations.
Palazzo Biscari: an eighteenth-century palace in the UNESCO-listed baroque centre of Catania, equipped with modern and technological features, coworking and event spaces for bootcamps, training and multiplier events.
Certified B Corporation, gender-equality certification, three annual social reports drafted under Italian ministerial guidelines and verified by a statutory oversight body. Evaluation is not an annex for us.
Our work is covered by national press and public television. We run our own media, photography and storytelling: dissemination is a role we take, not a task we outsource.
Cultural project leader, an Impact Manager and a dedicated EU project manager, working in Italian and English, from design to delivery to reporting, in-house.
What we work on
Orientation, training-to-work and soft, entrepreneurial and green skills for young people aged 18-29 who are not in employment, education or training. Designed with Sicilian employers, delivered for free.
Bootcamps, Theory of Change and business modelling for impact-driven ventures, from Catania to the Euro-Mediterranean area. We practise what we teach: business is not the goal, it is the lever.
From Fempreneurs to Hack the Gap: skills, mentorship and access to networks for young women building enterprises in Southern Italy, backed by our own gender-equality certification.
Digital, social, entrepreneurial and environmental skills for adult learners of all backgrounds. The field of our Erasmus+ KA210-ADU coordination.
Exhibitions, artist residencies and training for cultural workers in a UNESCO-listed setting. We believe culture is an enzyme of creativity, and beauty a form of care.
Green skills and pathways for a transition that does not leave the South behind, built with the companies of the energy supply chain operating in Sicily.
Funded projects
The EIT Food Accelerator Network is a European acceleration programme operating across 6 hubs throughout Europe (Munich, Helsinki, Paris, Warsaw, Catania and Wageningen) that supports 10+ high-impact start-ups in the agri-food sector each year, helping them to validate their technologies and accelerate their entry into the market.
Discover the programme
EMIMSEB is an immersive workshop that aims to share expertise on social entrepreneurship as a tool for civic participation for adults +35 in the Euro-Mediterranean region, notably Malta, Italy, Spain, Greece and France.
A free entrepreneurship programme for young Sicilian women, promoted by the U.S. Mission to Italy with Isola as lead organisation: 113 applications, 33 participants selected, 9 mentors across Italy and the United States, from empowerment workshops to a bootcamp and a pre-accelerator with a final Demo Day.
A project carried out by a consortium of 11 partners from 6 European countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia and Poland), with UNESCO as an associated partner. Cultural BEES offers a training programme that combines face-to-face experience, digital learning and virtual communities, to support 1,000 young people aged between 15 and 30 in developing the entrepreneurial skills they need to succeed in the cultural and creative sectors.
YES is an Erasmus+ project designed to provide new opportunities for young NEETs, youth aged 18-35 and youth workers. The aim is to tackle depopulation, youth unemployment and climate challenges by offering new employment tools, training in social entrepreneurship and soft skills.
An opportunity bringing together for one week youth workers from Italy, Romania and Morocco in Spain to develop their digital and entrepreneurial skills in supporting young creative talents who wish to start their own businesses in a sustainable way.
53 partners in 21 European countries, 21 of them in funded projects.
Where the work happens
Before you write to us
Yes. We are a social enterprise registered in Italy under D.Lgs. 112/2017, and we have already coordinated two Erasmus+ partnerships as lead applicant, KA210-ADU and KA220-YOU, delivered with partners in Spain, Romania, Malta, Croatia, France and Greece. PIC and OID are available on request.
Erasmus+ KA2-ADU and KA2-YOU as lead applicant, KA153-YOU as a partner, and Creative Europe as a partner. In international cooperation we have also worked as lead partner with the U.S. Mission to Italy.
Young people aged 18-35 and students aged 16-19, NEETs aged 18-29, young women entering entrepreneurship, adult learners +35, third-sector professionals and cultural workers, recruited through our own free programmes, school networks and a coalition of 100+ organisations. In 2025 our programmes counted 2,960 participants.
Yes. Our home is Palazzo Biscari, an eighteenth-century palace in the UNESCO-listed baroque centre of Catania, with coworking and event spaces used for bootcamps, training activities and public events, fifteen minutes from Catania international airport.
Italian and English, in both project management and delivery. The team includes a dedicated EU project coordinator, project leaders and an impact manager.
Sicily is a less developed region under EU Cohesion Policy 2021-2027, with one of the highest NEET rates in the European Union. A rooted Sicilian partner gives a consortium geographic balance, direct access to the target groups EU programmes prioritise, and measurable relevance and impact where they matter most.
Partner with us
Write to our projects team in Italian or English. If the fit is there, we answer with the role we can take, the target groups we can reach and the work packages we can lead.
Partner with us
Send us the call, the deadline and the gap you need to fill
Write to our projects team in Italian or English. If the fit is there, we answer with the role we can take, the target groups we can reach and the work packages we can lead.
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Thank you for your message, we will get back to you as soon as possible.