Candidates are invited to complete the application form (see below) and to submit it in addition to a nomination/letter of reference (see below) approved by their national Government/their organisation/network by the 31^st of May 2025.

Only complete applications complemented by a nomination/letter of reference which are submitted before the deadline will enter the further selection process.

Successful candidates need to:

Be between 18-30 years of age

• Be a national from one of the following countries (Reflecting the scope of the IPBES regional assessment for Europe and Central Asia):
  • Western European countries: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
  • Central European countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, North Macedonia and Turkey
  • Eastern Europe: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation and Ukraine
  • Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
• Be actively engaged in work on biodiversity, ecosystem services and nature conservation (including interlinkages with water, food, health and climate change or processes and activities of transformative change)
• Be nominated by a Government or an organisation/network via a letter of reference
• Be committed to participate in person in the youth workshop. Participants are expected to actively contribute to the workshop and to report on its outcome and on the work of IPBES to their home institutions and other relevant organisations and networks
• Have very good speaking, reading and writing skills in English as the workshop will be held in English
• Have demonstrated ability to respectfully interact with people from other disciplines and work effectively and efficiently in a multicultural team.

Please note that the application form is in English only and needs to be filled out online with Latin letters, otherwise it cannot be transferred to our database. 

The statement of motivation, which is part of the application form should cover the following points (max. 2500 characters):

• A brief introduction to the candidate's past and ongoing work on biodiversity, ecosystem services and nature conservation (which may include also interlinkages with water, food, health and climate change or processes and activities of transformative change) within and outside the nominating organisation or network and the candidate's motivation for this engagement
• The candidate's relevant network (organisations, individuals etc.) and expertise that the other youth workshop participants could benefit from
• A short and personal description why the candidate wishes to participate in the workshop, what they can contribute to it, and how they and their organisation/network could benefit from it personally and professionally

Any information that demonstrates abilities expected from successful candidates listed above

Please note that the nomination form/letter of reference is in English only and needs to be filled out on a computer (no handwriting!) with Latin letters, otherwise it cannot be transferred to our database. The completed form needs to be saved and renamed using the following filename systematic:

• Surname of the applicant-First name-nomination.pdf

Governments, youth organisations and networks engaged in work on biodiversity/ecosystem services and nature conservation (including interlinkages with water, food, health and climate change or processes and activities of transformative change) can nominate a candidate with the qualifications set out above (in section "Successful candidates need to") to participate in the youth workshop. International or regional youth organisations and networks can nominate up to five candidates from their own organisation/network, but only one candidate can be nominated per country. Nominators have to provide a letter of reference for each candidate. This form should state specific reasons why the candidate is being nominated, preferably addressing the following points (max. 2000 characters):

• Brief information on the work of the candidate's organization/network in supporting engagement of younger generations in topics related to biodiversity and ecosystem services as well as nature conservation (including interlinkages with water, food, health and climate change or processes and activities of transformative change)
• The candidate’s role and contributions (past and ongoing) in its youth organisation/network
• How the candidate's youth organisation/network will benefit from participation in the youth workshop
• How the nominator will facilitate and support the successful applicant in sharing their experience from the youth workshop within the organisation/network

Note for applicants from Germany: the German government will not nominate any candidates. Thus, German applicants need to be nominated by their organisation/network.

Suitable candidates are selected by an independent selection committee, based on the above-mentioned criteria with a view to achieving disciplinary, gender and geographic balance. In addition, active engagement in youth organisations/networks will be considered, as well.

All candidates will be notified of the results via e-mail by BfN.