OUR SPONSORS
The International Visegrad Fund is an international donor organization, established in 2000 by the governments of the Visegrad Group countries—Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Its mission is to promote regional cooperation in the Visegrad region (V4) as well as between the V4 and other countries, especially those in the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership orbit. The Visegrad Fund does so by annually awarding €8 million through grants, scholarships and artist residencies, the cost being equally shared among the V4 governments. Other donor countries (Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States) have provided another €10 million through various grant schemes run by the Fund since 2012. The Fund’s vision is that grants, scholarships and residencies will become the catalyst for the advancement of innovative ideas in Central and Eastern Europe.
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) is a non-profit political foundation funded by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany with its headquarters in Bonn and Berlin, and has offices and projects in over 100 countries. The foundation is associated with the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), yet independent of it. Established in 1925 as a political legacy of the first democratically elected German president, Friedrich Ebert,. its main aim is to facilitate socio-political and economic development. In the spirit of social democracy, FES strives to fulfil its goals by civic education, research activities and international cooperation. Among other ventures the foundation supports students of outstanding intellectual abilities and personality. The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung is Germany’s oldest organization promoting democracy and political education. .
Embassy of the Netherlands in the Czech Republic became one of the official sponsors of the Future European Leaders Forum this year by providing a full scholarship for one distinguisheed student from a Dutch university. The activities of the embassy are coordinated from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs in The Hague.
PROJECT PARTNERS
Stratpol - Strategic Policy Institute – is an independent think-tank based in Slovakia focusing on international relations and security policy. Among your typical think-tank preoccupations, Stratpol too engages in youth-oriented education and professional development. Their flagship project is the annual Summer University for Young Professionals since 2007 which In 2018 expanded into a year-long Young Professionals program. InfoKompas - an information-literacy project focusing on educating young people about disinformation - or educating Slovakia's youth on the principles and values of the values of the Euro-Atlantic partnership and its role in Slovakia's security. Moreover, this year, Stratpol is pioneering a training program in contemporary peace and conflict journalism for aspiring young journalists from Eastern Partnership and Central European countries.
V4SDG is the first NGO working on strengthening sustainability leadership and cooperation in the countries of the Visegrad Group (CZ, HU, PL, SK). They are a collective of over 30 young professionals contributing voluntarily in order to create a multi-stakeholder cooperation framework through which the goals of sustainable development can be more easily attained. Currently, we are building the first online knowledge-sharing platform and network of sustainability professionals and organisations in the Visegrad Group. V4SDGs have been engaged in advocacy in various fields of sustainability included in Agenda 2030 of the United Nations, have organised trainings, expert discussions and consulting sessions related to them. Furthermore, we are a youth-led organisation also involved in generational interest representation at the international (UN) and the European (EU) levels