IP-PAD joins EYP!

What happens in young people’s brains when they think of politics and political leaders? How do adolescents understand and learn about their political system?  What makes some teenagers active members of their community while others prefer to not engage as much? These and many more questions are at the core of the IP-PAD project (Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Politics of Adolescence and Democracy).

IP-PAD is an MSCA network formed by five different European universities, working with the goal of learning about the role that younger citizens play in our democratic systems. The network is comprised of doctoral candidates and experts coming together from all sorts of disciplines such as neuropsychology, sociology, communications and political science. However, IP-PAD extends far beyond academic research. A key part of this project is its collaboration with non-academic partners such as the EYP.

In the next 10 months, three IP-PAD doctoral candidates will join the International Office of EYP in Berlin and work closely with our team. During their time as Student Assistants, Irene, Mykyta and Gustavo will give support to the activities of EYP while gaining insights into how young people can be active agents of change in their political systems.

The first to join us on June 17th has been Irene Arahal Moreno, a political scientist based in London that is writing her PhD thesis on the development of belief consistency during adolescence. Irene is particularly excited about joining an organisation that is so committed to challenging the stereotype that “young people just don’t care” when the reality could be more accurately described as “older people just won’t listen”. Welcome Irene!

IP-PAD is funded by the European Union, under the Horizon Europe MSCA Doctoral Networks programme (Call HORIZON-MSCA-2021-DN-01, Grant Agreement No. 101072992). Royal Holloway, University of London was funded by the UKRI Horizon Europe guarantee’ scheme.