Young Professionals Scholarship

Investing in young professionals working for Protected Areas

EUROPARC strongly believes that investing in capacity building for young professionals is vital for the long term success of Europe’s Protected Areas. Like everything else, the future of Protected Areas relies on the young generation taking an active and informed role. This year the EUROPARC Federation, with support from the EU LIFE Programme, will award two Young Professional Scholarship Awards to promising young conservationists, who are committed to working for the benefit of Protected Areas. The aim of the scholarships is to enhance international cooperation and to advance the quality, innovation and European dimension of Protected Area management.

Each scholarship is worth €2.000 and enables successful applicants to undertake one or more study visits on a particular theme in other European Protected Areas.

While there are many opportunities for students to get scholarships to improve their skills abroad, there are few for those who have already entered the working world. Hence, the aim of this scholarship is to give the opportunity to those young professionals that have chosen to develop a career in Protected Areas, to improve their skills and learn from other professionals by carrying out study visits to Protected Areas across Europe.

Download the guidelines Frequently Asked Questions Application Form overview Apply here

What is it?

The EUROPARC Scholarship for Young Professionals offers early-career conservationists the opportunity to undertake a self-organised study visit to two or more Protected Areas in 2026 in at least one country outside of their country of residence. Funded by the programme, the visit will focus on exploring a specific management theme, enabling recipients to gain practical insights and share knowledge across Protected Area networks.

Applicants must: 

  • be 18 – 34 years of age by the 1st of October 2025
  • reside in a European country (see the list of countries from the Council of Europe) 
  • be employed by a Protected Area or nature conservation organisation or be employed by an organisation that delivers its work in Protected Areas

Applications for study visits to prepare, or be any part of the delivery of  master or doctoral thesis will not be considered.

Study visit topics

The themes for the current call are:

  • Nature restoration
  • Visitor management
  • Health and wellbeing

Applicants are encouraged to look at the interlinkages of nature and society.

Planning

The application requires you to already have made contact with potential host organisations. This can take some time so begin your planning as soon as possible.

Your study visit should include at least two other Protected Areas and at least one which is in another country.

Your study visit should be financially feasible and have have mitigation plans to reduce the climate impact as much as possible. For example: using land-based or sea-based travel options and/or calculating and offsetting  the carbon emissions.

If, after receiving the scholarship, you experience any challenges in concretising your plans, you are able to make adjustments with the informed consent of EUROPARC. An example, if the mentor you planned to visit at a Protected Area switches jobs or is away for the time you intended to visit, you can change the timing or switch to another park as long as you keep EUROPARC abreast of the challenges and proposed changes.

Reporting

The winners of the scholarship will be required to do the following outreach:

  • attend the award ceremony at the EUROPARC Conference 2025 and present their study topic
  • write a report on the outcomes or knowledge learnt during the study visit
  • write a 500 word news article for the EUROPARC Website
  • Create a 3-5 minute horizontal video about the experience
  • Send EUROPARC at least 10 high quality photos about the locations visited and activities undertaken

For more details, read the guideline.

History

For many years, EUROPARC has partnered with the Alfred Toepfer Foundation to deliver the Alfred Toepfer Natural Heritage Scholarship. This initiative was highly successful and many young professionals from across Europe benefited from it. The board of the Alfred Topefer Foundation has decided to  invest that budget in a different project and so EUROPARC is exploring options to find new donors to commit to a long term capacity building scholarship programme. If you would like to assist, feel free to send us an email!

The 2025 EUROPARC Scholarship for Young Professionals is made possible through funding of the LIFE Programme. Views and opinions do not necessarily reflect that of the European Commission or of CINEA.

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