European Student Think Tank

The Concept
In the sum­mer of 2010 the European Stu­dent Think Tank (EST) was offi­cially foun­ded. After months of brain­storm­ing, gath­er­ing advice and con­cep­tu­al­iz­ing the ori­ginal idea was finally worked out: the idea that the European Union and its young cit­izens should be brought closer together. As the EU  has gained a lot of influ­ence on its member-states over the past dec­ades, we feel the pub­lic debate should not only enroll at a national, but also at an inter­na­tional level. Des­pite past ini­ti­at­ives, it is still easier for stu­dents to engage in national rather than European polit­ics. The Think Tank aims for act­ive par­ti­cip­a­tion of the young cit­izens of the EU. Fur­ther­more, we see a lack of pos­sib­il­it­ies for stu­dents to use their aca­demic know­ledge in the prac­tice of inter­na­tional polit­ics. EST will try to fill this gap, by serving as a plat­form via which inter­ested stu­dents can develop and share their ideas. Inspired by suc­cess­ful stu­dent think tanks in the U.S., a group of motiv­ated stu­dents star­ted work­ing to cre­ate a coun­ter­part in Europe.

In prac­tice
The European Stu­dent Think Tank will serve as a plat­form for stu­dents to involve them in the pro­cess of policy-making within the European Union. Through this web­site, motiv­ated stu­dents can get in con­tact with each other, read and com­ment on policy-ideas, react on European news and dis­cuss issues with experts in the field. The best policy-ideas writ­ten by stu­dents will be pub­lished in journ­als. Fur­ther­more, EST will host events where stu­dents, policy-makers and other experts can dis­cuss European issues directly.

\We hope for EST to be an inter­dis­cip­lin­ary and open organ­isa­tion in which the most het­ero­gen­eous group of stu­dents can work together. All uni­ver­sity stu­dents in Europe are invited to con­trib­ute to the Think Tank in the form of writ­ten blogs, policy-ideas and vis­ions. Fur­ther­more, we pro­mote the use of “new media”: we motiv­ate stu­dents to trans­form their ideas not only into text, but also in other forms, such as movie clips, schemes and draw­ings. Details on the dif­fer­ent ways to con­trib­ute to EST can be found in the ‘Join!’ sec­tion of our website.

A young organisation

As we are a very young organ­isa­tion we are set­ting up more and more aspects of the Think Tank in due time. We’re plan­ning to organ­ise con­fer­ences where inter­na­tional stu­dents and experts are invited to present their view on a EU-related theme. Futher­more, we’ll set up dif­fer­ent so-called ‘strategy groups’, con­sist­ing of a group of stu­dents, that will thor­oughly ana­lyse a European policy theme. Their con­clu­sions will be sent to the Com­mis­sion and presen­ted at dif­fer­ent con­fer­ences.  Last but not least, we even­tu­ally wish to set up EST-chapters all over Europe. To achieve these ambi­tious goals, nat­ur­ally your help is vital. We need you to provide us with the neces­sary fresh ideas to really become a bloom­ing Think Tank. If you’re inter­ested to con­trib­ute, please react on one of the vacan­cies. How­ever, if you know of any other way to aid us that is not men­tioned in the vacan­cies, do not hes­it­ate to con­tact us via contact@studentthinktank.eu. We would be happy to wel­come you in the EST-community!

Achievements:

Char­le­magne Youth Prize – European Youth Prize

In 2011 the European Stu­dent Think Tank was awar­ded with the Char­le­magne youth prize in the Neth­er­lands and nom­in­ated for the European Char­le­magne prize.

Jerzy Buzek (Pres­id­ent of the European Par­lia­ment) with Eline Böt­ger (pres­id­ent 2011-2012 of the EST) dur­ing the Prize cere­mony in Aachen.