After a long year of struggle with the effects of the covid-19 in Europe and the world, we have a renewed hope in the possibilities of bringing people together in exchange and discussion. At the same time, the challenges to democracy and the open society is felt more acutely than ever, strengthening our dedication to channel the voices, the ideas and the enthusiasm of the young people living in Europe. We are thus happy to announce that we hereby open up the call for applications to our third annual youth conference on November 22-25 at Visual Arena Lindholmen in Gothenburg.

If you are aged 18-24 and live in Europe, we want to entrust you with real-world challenges, and expect you to propose tangible solutions that inspire both prosperity and democracy – in other words, start your development as a democracy innovator!

Our annual conferences held in 2019 and 2020 included intense discussions and resulted in visionary proposals for sustaining and vitalizing an open society. The work on these proposals are still ongoing within the process we call the IYTT Bottom-Up Advise Loop, driving research and deliberation in the International Youth Think Tank and among its affiliations.

We strongly believe in the power of personal exchange and we very much hope that the situation will allow us to bring all our young participants together on site at Lindholmen, Gothenburg. However, due to restrictions, last year’s conference, had to be realized in an online format. To our great joy, it still came out a tremendous success, rewarding to both the participants and the think tank staff. We are thus more than prepared to adapt this year’s conference to online or hybrid exchange if the circumstances should demand so. Besides the pandemic, we are acutely aware of the even greater challenge of climate change. We are determined, therefore, that all travel to and from Gothenburg is done in the most sustainable way practically feasible.

If you are aged 18–24 and live in Europe, take the chance to join the movement that shows the ways towards a sustainable future of an open and democratic society. Apply no later than August 16.