The Policy Leader Fellows’ Forum 2026, the culminating event of the Policy Leader Fellowship (PLF) brought together the 2025–26 cohort of fellows for a forward-looking conversation on governance, cooperation, and policymaking in an increasingly interconnected and uncertain world.
Held during the European University Institute’s 50th anniversary year, the forum moved beyond the traditional conference model. Through four fishbowl sessions, each combining expert moderation with a dedicated seat for audience participation, fellows from backgrounds from governments, international organisations, civil society, academia, and the private sector explored cross-cutting policy questions.
Opening the Forum, Johanna Mair, Director of the Florence School of Transnational Governance reflected on the significance of the Policy Leader Fellowship within the School’s history: “The Policy Leaders Fellowship is not just any programme to the School of Transnational Governance - it is our first programme. It is where we began,” she said, describing the Fellowship as both a cornerstone of the school and “a model of what good policy education can look like.” She also acknowlegded acknowledged the contributions of team behind the fellowship as well as the programme leadership, including Professor Trine Flockhart.
Rather than focusing on isolated policy domains, the forum explored how governance challenges increasingly overlap across borders and sectors. Discussions covered shifting global power dynamics, democratic resilience, knowledge co-creation and social innovation, migration, and the governance implications of rapid digitalisation and artificial intelligence.
“The goal today is not consensus,” Johanna Mair noted. “It is not to arrive at a tidy set of recommendations. It is something more useful and, I would argue, more honest: to surface the right questions.”
Reflecting on the discussions, Policy Leader Fellow Gaston Gentner highlighted the importance of developing new approaches to policymaking amid overlapping crises: “We are contributing to moving forward ways to think about policy issues in this perfect storm in which we are in,” the fellow said.
Takeaways from the PLF Forum gathered insights and reflections from the day’s discussions in a final panel featuring Professor Claudio Radaelli, former PLF Academic Coordinator, and two 2nd year master’s students that also highlighted the experiences of the broader STG community over the past 10 months of engagement with the Policy Leader Fellows. The session emphasised how sustained interaction between fellows and students shaped learning on both sides. Professor Claudio Radaelli reflected on the discussions, noting: “I was also struck by the thoroughness of our knowledge creation and co-creation” and noted the depth of engagement across the programme, while a student Chiara Pirozzi highlighted the importance of these exchanges with the fellows, saying: “it was a huge part of my student experience here. It would have been entirely different without them.”
Alongside the discussions, a poster exhibition developed by the Fellows on their projects, research, and policy initiatives is currently being showcased in the halls of Palazzo Buontalenti. The exhibition provides an additional space for exchange and reflection, highlighting the diversity of experiences and approaches represented within the programme.
The exhibition will remain accessible until Thursday, 18 June 2026, when we will officially celebrate the closing chapter of the 2025-26 cohort of Policy Leader Fellows at the Florence School of Transnational Governance.