On 29 - 30 May 2026, students from across the CIVICA alliance will gather at Sciences Po in Paris for the Student AI Summit, a Student Engagement Fund (SEF)-supported project focused on the future of artificial intelligence governance, digital rights, and misinformation in Europe. Check out the event details on our Events page.
Organised by a student team from Sciences Po, Central European University (CEU), and National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA), the summit will bring together students from across disciplines to simulate a high-level European policy forum on AI. Participants will represent governments, technology companies, civil society organisations, and regulatory bodies as they debate and draft policy recommendations addressing some of the most pressing challenges of the digital age.
The project is led by a team of CIVICA students including Asya Yerlikaya (Event Coordinator and Guest Relations Manager), Alice Loy (Event Design and Preparation), Alessandro Czarnocki Lucheschi and Bianca Majeczki (Event Communication, Expert and Partner Engagement), Elouan Dufau and Angela Tanca (Logistics and Event Planning, Treasurers), and Ranea Amir (Event Preparation and Equity Officer).
Ahead of the summit, CIVICA spoke with members of the organising team about their motivations for launching the initiative, why student voices are essential in debates on AI governance, and what participants can expect from the two-day policy simulation.
What inspired your group to organise this event?
We all were very conscious about how AI is reshaping the world around us, but students rarely had a space to engage with those questions seriously and practically. We wanted to create something that was more than a lecture: a space where students could step into the shoes of the people actually making these decisions, MEPs, tech companies, NGOs, regulators, and experience firsthand how difficult and political these conversations really are. The SEF gave us the opportunity to make that happen across borders, which felt like exactly the right scale for a problem that is inherently European.
Why do you think it's important for European students and policymakers to engage with issues of AI governance and digital misinformation now?
Because the decisions being made right now will define the rules for decades. The EU AI Act, the DSA, questions around algorithmic bias and surveillance : these are not future problems, they are already shaping elections, job markets, and how people access information. Yet, the people defining the rules are often the ones building and profiting from the technology. As students, we think it's essential that a wider range of voices, including ours, are part of that conversation before the frameworks are locked in. The future is not set in stone, but it is shaped by the choices made today, and we'd rather be part of making them.
What do you hope participants will take away from the workshop?
Beyond the practical skills like policy drafting, negotiation, public speaking, we hope participants leave with a real sense that these issues are theirs to engage with. A lot of students feel like AI governance is too technical or too political for them. We want to show that every perspective, whether you study law, economics, computer science, or communications, is valuable and necessary. We also hope they leave with connections: to students from Sciences Po, CEU, and SNSPA, and to a network of people who care about making sure AI strengthens rather than undermines democratic values.
How does cross-campus collaboration help in tackling AI-driven challenges and fostering European policy discussions?
AI governance is inherently a cross-border challenge, and the way different countries experience it varies a lot in terms of regulation, political culture, media ecosystems. Having students from Paris, Vienna, and Bucharest in the same room means the debates are richer and more realistic. It also mirrors the actual structure of European policymaking, where you constantly have to find compromise across different national and institutional interests. That's something you can't really simulate with students from just one university.
