#03. YouthDecide 2040: Shaping the future of democracy with young voices!
In January 2025, the European-funded project YouthDecide 2040 launched a three-year effort to explore how democracy in the European Union can successfully address 21st-century social and technological challenges. Through historical and contemporary research, strategic foresight, and participatory deliberation methods, YouthDecide 2040 aims to co-create coherent pathways to desired futures of EU democracy by 2040, engaging European youth alongside political institutions, organized civil society, and older generations.
Interdisciplinary, Cross-sector Research Expertise
The YouthDecide 2040 consortium brings together 11 partners with expertise across democracy research, foresight, participatory deliberation, co-creation, youth advocacy, and multimedia communication. This cross-sector collaboration ensures a diversity of perspectives crucial for meaningfully democratizing and shaping resilient democratic futures. Partners include:
European Democracy Youth Network (EDYN), Strategic Design Scenarios, WeDo Project Intelligence Made Easy SL, Missions Publiques, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI), Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, European Partnership for Democracy (EPD), European University Institute (EUI), European Youth Forum (YFJ), Make.org, and AIT the Austrian Institute of Technology.
Societal, scientific, economic, and technological impacts
YouthDecide 2040 will empower hundreds of young Europeans through immersive participatory activities that foster learning, cooperation, and innovation. Scientifically, the project will contribute empirical insights into intergenerational expectations toward democracy. Economically, stable democratic futures enhance macroeconomic conditions. Technologically, visions generated by participants will help align research and innovation developments with democratic values.
Democratising foresight: Pioneering participatory methodologies
A hallmark of YouthDecide 2040 is the use of seeds-based scenarios—an innovative participatory foresight technique—to co-create preferred democratic futures. This method opens strategic planning to a wider diversity of voices and empowers young Europeans to anticipate challenges and design resilient democratic pathways.
Current Activities: Open Call for Youth
In line with its participatory ethos, YouthDecide 2040 has launched an Open Call inviting young changemakers from across Europe to actively shape the future of democracy.
Starting in June 2025, YouthDecide 2040 will host a series of immersive, one-and-a-half-day workshops across different European regions:
- Central/Eastern Europe – June 2025 (registration full)
- Southern Europe – July 2025
- Western Europe – September 2025
- Northern Europe – September 2025
- “Future” Europe – June 2025 (registration full)
These workshops will bring together diverse young voices to collaboratively explore, debate, and envision democracy in 2040 through creative foresight activities. Travel and accommodation will be covered for selected participants. Applications began in early April and remain open throughout May.
🔗 Interested candidates can apply at: https://yd2040.eu/open-call.
Linkages to National and International Research
YouthDecide 2040 builds on decades of European efforts to enhance citizen participation in democratic futures. Drawing on experiences such as the Conference on the Future of Europe and participatory foresight initiatives by the Joint Research Centre, the consortium advances participatory democracy research, aiming to institutionalize these methods within policymaking processes. With partners like EDYN, YFJ, and EPD, the project is well positioned to ensure that visions developed through YouthDecide 2040 become actionable policy realities.