Deadline: September 1, 2025
Applications are open for the UNESCO Global Youth Hackathon 2025. The Youth Hackathon is a flagship initiative of UNESCO’s Global Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Week, empowering young people worldwide to tackle urgent challenges in today’s digital information landscape. These include the rise of AI, the spread of mis- and disinformation, online hate speech, platform dominance, and threats to information integrity.
Following the success of the 2024 edition – which brought together 202 teams from 68 countries – UNESCO is gearing up for an even more impactful 2025 edition. Under this year’s theme, Youth Leading the Way: Building MIL solutions for Impact, UNESCO calls for youth aged 18 to 30 to collaborate, innovate, and lead with their ideas.
Challenge Tracks
Teams can choose one or more of the following focus areas:
- AI and MIL: Innovative solutions addressing challenges posed by AI through MIL
- MIL Education: Creative approaches to MIL learning in the digital age
- Community Impact: MIL-based interventions that empower communities
- Youth Engagement: Strategies to position youth organizations as MIL change agents
- Open Track: Other MIL-related ideas aligned with this year’s theme
Benefits
- All participants will benefit from free online mentoring by international experts before the final submission.
- Each winning team can select 2 representatives to present the projects at the Global MIL Week Conference on 23-24 October 2025 in Cartagena, Colombia – with flight and accommodation covered by UNESCO.
Eligibility
UNESCO invites young changemakers to join this global event:
- Teams of 3–6 members (national, regional, or international)
- All team members must be 18–30 years old
- Teams should align with UNESCO’s values, including peace, respect for diversity, and freedom of expression
- Gender balance and inclusion are highly encouraged
- No prior experience required—only passion and motivation!
Application
- Fill in your team profile
- Fill in the basic project information
- Upload your submission materials, including:
- Proposal (Word or PDF, in English, max 10 MB)
- Pitch video (up to 3 minutes) — upload to any platform and share the accessible link
For more information, visit UNESCO.
