NOTE: This article draws on a write-up by Dr Kayden J Schumacher. Read his full account of the Brussels meeting here.

Researchers and partners from across Europe gathered in Brussels for the latest YOUROPE Horizon Europe consortium meeting, hosted at the Coventry University Brussels Hub. For many participants, it was their first opportunity to meet at this scale in person — a moment that proved energising, strengthening relationships, deepening collaboration, and aligning the next stages of this ambitious research project.

“It was incredibly refreshing to finally meet so many of our partners and colleagues face-to-face,” reflected Dr Kayden J Schumacher, Research Fellow at Coventry University. “The energy in the room made it clear just how vital in-person connection is for meaningful collaboration across a project with so many intricate moving parts.”

Community-Led Research in Coventry

The meeting provided an important platform to share emerging work from CLRA initiatives taking place across the consortium. Dr Luca Morini and Dr Kayden J Schumacher presented several CLRAs currently underway in Coventry, developed in partnership with local community groups and Coventry University students.

One example involves master’s students in Project Design working alongside Coventry Green New Deal and local residents to co-create new energy interfaces for a recently developed net-zero neighbourhood in Hillfields, Coventry. The challenge is a practical but deeply human one: the neighbourhood’s technologically advanced energy infrastructure was designed with different users in mind, and many residents struggle with tasks as basic as turning on their own heating.

A second CLRA is co-producing an art and activism exhibition between a local LGBT+ youth group and Coventry University psychology students, exploring creative methods of civic expression and democratic engagement around issues currently affecting LGBT+ young people, their rights, and their experiences.

Both projects are entirely driven by young people and community members. The role of the research team is to help facilitate the conditions for underrepresented youth and communities to lead the work — and to imagine sustainable democratic futures for their communities, including pathways that can reach European-level policy.

Building cross-border connections

These local Coventry projects will form part of the wider CLRA-COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) exchanges being designed within YOUROPE, led by Professor Katherine Wimpenny, a recognised international scholar in COIL pedagogy. Together, Katherine and Kayden are developing structures to connect CLRA teams across eight YOUROPE partner countries, supporting them to share knowledge, collaborate on outputs, and build cross-border youth networks.

“Supporting Professor Katherine Wimpenny in developing the CLRA–COIL manual and getting these interactions going is a real privilege,” said Dr Schumacher. “Her leadership and expertise in COIL are shaping a model that can meaningfully connect youth-led research across Europe and build underrepresented young people’s confidence to participate in democratic spaces.”

Research, policy, and the road ahead

Alongside CLRA and CLRA-COIL development, the project continues to work towards linking community-generated insights with policy at local, national, and EU levels. Dr Mehmet Karakus and YOUROPE researchers across the university partners have carried out an extensive review of academic literature on European citizenship, democracy learning, and youth political efficacy — with a particular focus on how underrepresented young people develop the confidence to participate in democratic spaces.

The Brussels meeting marked an important milestone in building momentum across YOUROPE. The sense of shared connection, commitment, and purpose renewed in those rooms will continue to guide the next phase of delivery, as partners work collectively to support underrepresented youth engagement, civic imagination, and democratic participation across Europe.

Read Dr Schumacher’s full account of the Brussels meeting here.