In 2014, 2016 and 2018 city2-science organized the European Students’ Parliament in Herford. The student parliament was part of the European project “Debate Science! European Student Parliaments”.
The project “Debate Science! European Student Parliaments” was organized and coordinated by the initiative Science in Dialogue between 2014 and 2018. The content and goal of the project is the exchange between students, researchers and policy makers. The project was able to arouse interest in young Europeans for science in the context of relevant societal challenges and at the same time provide them with insights into democratic decision-making processes. In all three rounds, there were first local student parliaments in different European cities. Afterwards, all local parliaments sent a delegation consisting of 5 students to a final European debate.
The topics of the three rounds were the future of the city (2014), the future of people (2016) and the future of mobility (2018). The participating students were divided into small groups – each with a different challenge related to the respective main topic of the European Students’ Parliament, e.g. “healthy nutrition” in relation to the “future of mankind” (EUSP 2016). With a little input from a scientist researching on an appropriate topic, the young people independently developed resolutions on their respective topic. These resolutions were voted on in a final debate with all participants. Afterwards, the resolutions were handed over to decision-makers – both at the local student parliaments and at the final parliaments in Copenhagen, Manchester and Toulouse.
The three resolution booklets of the closing parliaments can be found here:
Copenhagen 2014, “The Future of Our City”.“
