The European Knowledge Centre for Youth Policy (EKCYP) Correspondents

The EKCYP is supported by a European wide network of European Knowledge Centre correspondents nominated by the member states ministries.
The correspondents draft country sheets on national youth policies and answer questionnaires on the topics of Participation, Information, Voluntary Activities and a Better Understanding of Youth. The results can be found in the section country information of the EKCYP. he answers to the questionnaires are either quantitative (e.g. the numbers of young people who belong to youth organisations, the number of people who vote in elections and the number of young people) or qualitative (e.g. measures to foster voluntary activities, actions that have been taken this year on the different topics and methods for increasing citizenship).
The EKCYP correspondents

- 16th meeting, October 2020
- 15th meeting. June 2019
- 14th meeting. September 2018 (joint PEYR/EKCYP meeting)
- 13th meeting. September 2017 (joint PEYR/EKCYP meeting)
- 12th meeting. September 2016 (joint PEYR/EKCYP meeting)
- 11th meeting. September 2015
- 10th meeting. November 2014
- 9th meeting. October 2013
- 8th meeting. October 2012
- 7th meeting. October 2011
- Joint Meeting of the European Network of Youth Researchers and the EKCYP Correspondents. January 2010
- 6th meeting. November 2010
- 5th meeting. March 2009
- 4th meeting. October 2008
- 3rd meeting. February 2008
- 2nd meeting. October 2007
- 1st meeting. September 2006


Armenia
Marine Sargsyan
Head of Cooperation and Analysis Division of the Department of Youth Policy of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia.
Candidate of Philological Sciences, Master of Public Administration.
Since 2010 she has been working at the Cooperation and Analysis Division and has participated in the creation of the important documents of youth policy such as The Concept of State Youth Policy of the RA, The Strategies of the State Youth Policy of RA for 2012-2017 and 2018-2022, The Regulation of Youth Worker Institute, The Training Program of the Youth Worker.
She has participated in a series of trainings on youth policy and youth work.
m.sargsyan.msy@gmail.com

Albania
Jehona ROKA

Austria
Mr Manfred ZENTNER
Donau-Universität Krems
I studied Mathematics and Philosophy but work as a youth researcher since 1997. My main fields of interest are youth cultures, political participation of young people as well as attitudes and values. Furthermore I am active in evaluation studies on youth policy and on the implementation of preventive concepts and health promotion in youth work.
From 1997 to 1999 I was researcher at the Austrian Institute for Youth Research where I became scientific director in 2000. From 2001 to 2013 I worked in the fields of research and knowledge transfer at the private research organisation jugendkultur.at in Vienna. Since 2013 I am engaged at the Danube-University Krems in the Department for Migration and Globalization as researcher and lecturer. Furthermore I am lecturer at various teacher training colleges in Austria.
Already in the late 1990s I was involved in the network of experts on youth research and one of the national correspondents for the EKCYP since its start.
In the year 2007 I was raporteur in the Council of Europe international review team for the national youth policy in Hungary and four years later for the international review of the youth policy in Belgium.
manfred.zentner@donau-uni.ac.at

Azerbaijan
Ms. Narmin ASLANBAYOVA

Belarus
Mr Andrei SALIKAU
National Institute for Higher Education, Youth Policy and Sociocultural Communication Department
Andrei Salikau is a Professor at the Youth Policy and Sociocultural Communication Department, the National Institute for Higher Education, Minsk, Belarus. Andrei received his B.A. in Arts, M.A. in Humanitarian Sciences, Ph.D. in Culturology (candidate of Culturology) from the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts, Minsk, Belarus. Also, he received conferred qualification «Specialist in Youth Work» from the National Institute for Higher Education.
He has been taking part in many national and international activities in the youth field (forums, symposiums, consultative meetings, workshops, webinars, etc.). He is a member of the editorial board for the Youth Voice Journal, and executive secretary for the editorial board of the academic journal «Modern youth and society». Andrei Salikau is a member of some ed-hock expert groups on youth issues at national and international levels. He carries out scientific and scientifically popular researches in the youth field and manages some international youth programs and projects.
His research interests include state youth policy (development and implementation); international youth cooperation; young people's creativity and culture; intercultural dialog in the youth field; youth quality of life and wellbeing; financial literacy and economic culture for youth; social protection of youth in the Republic of Belarus.

Belgium
Flemish speaking community
Ms Lieve BRADT
Ghent University, Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy
Prof. dr. Lieve Bradt obtained her PhD in Educational Sciences at Ghent University in 2009. Since 2016 she is Professor of Social Pedagogy at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy at Ghent University. She is promotor coordinator of the Youth Research Platform (Jeugdonderzoeksplatform), a policy research centre subsidized by the Flemish Government. The Youth Research Platform is an interdisciplinary and interuniversity cooperation between Ghent University (social work and social pedagogy), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (sociology) and KU Leuven (youth criminology). The Youth Research Platform’s main tasks are (1) expanding our knowledge on youth by drawing up an inventory of existing youth research in both a national and international context, and (2) recurrently conducting large-scale survey research on the life-conditions, attitudes and activities of young people in Flanders.

Belgium
French speaking community
Julie De Wilde
Ministère de la Communauté française - Observatoire de l'Enfance, de la Jeunesse et de l'Aide à la Jeunesse
Julie De Wilde is a sociologist who has worked as an academic researcher in UCL (Université catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve) for almost six years. She works now at the Observatoire de l’enfance, de la jeunesse et de l’Aide à la Jeunesse (Observatory of childhood, youth and youth care) since 2014. The Observatory is part of the Ministry of the french-speaking Community Governement. Its works consists on generating studies and datas in this specific field. It’s also in charge of the evaluation of different decrees concerning public policies on childhood and youth.

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Mr Jasmin JASAREVIC
PRONI Centre for youth development
Child Protection officer in PRONI Brcko, an “A”, “B” and “B+” level certified educator and General Manager of the PRONI Center for Youth Development. He has served on the national BH Commission for youth since 2006. He holds several Training of Trainers certificates focused on youth worker trainings, with a focus on engaging youth in conflict mitigation activities. Jasmin was involved in youth policy and youth work development since 1998. Jasmin is currently engage as a Correspondent for Youth Policy Development from BiH within a program of the European Knowledge Centre for Youth Policy (EKCYP). He was the first trainer from BiH to be included in the online list of trainers of the SALTO-YOUTH Resource youth center, and is also a President of the Management Board of Anna Lindh foundation - BiH Network and a previous member of the Executive Board of the US Alumni Association Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since 2012, Jasmin is BIH Country Director for YouthBuild International.

Bulgaria
Lilia TOPALOVA
As a member of WG of Knowledge Management & Staff Training (KMST) of GD EAK for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture she worked to support NAs staff in the implementation of Erasmus+ Programme to reach out a coherent European approach for capacity building, staff competences and strategic partnership.

Croatia
Mr Marko KOVACIC
Institute for Social Research
Marko Kovacic is a youth researcher seated at the Institute for Social Research where he is affiliated to the Center for Youth and Gender Studies. Currently, he is a visiting fresearch ellow at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona where he studies youth political participation.
Marko’s education include PhD in (youth) public policy at the University of Ljubljana (ongoing), an MA in public policy at the University of Zagreb and an MA program in political science at Central European University, Budapest. Marko’s research focus is on youth policy, particularly non-formal political participation of young people in the post-socialist context, youth political competency and youth work. He has been publishing papers on those and similar issues in domestic and international journals and presented his findings in more than 20 international conferences.
Apart from the academic career, for more than 10 years Marko has been an active member and a trainer in various civil society organizations and initiatives, focusing on youth and educational issues. Hence, he is a national correspondent on youth policy for the European Knowledge Center for Youth Policy, administrated by the Youth Partnership between the Council of Europe and the European Commission. Marko has worked as a consultant and evaluator for numerous international organizations on topic of youth and education. In addition, he is a youth research methodology lecturer at the Youth Studies programme in Croatia.

Cyprus
Ms Anna LYTRA
Youth Board of Cyprus

Czech Republic

Estonia
Ms Reelika PIRK
Ministry of Education and Research
Reelika Pirk is a chief expert at Estonian Youth Work Centre. She is also a PhD candidate in sociology at Tallinn University. Her research interest is in youth studies, precisely youth and social-political participation.
Reelika.Pirk@entk.ee

Finland
Mr Tomi Kiilakoski
Finnish Youth Research Society
Tomi Kiilakoski, PhD, is a senior researcher in the Finnish Youth Research Network and an adjunct professor in the University of Tampere. His areas of expertise include youth work, youth participation, educational policy, school violence and its prevention, cultural philosophy and critical pedagogy. He has worked in the university of Tampere and Humak University of Applied Sciences. He has authored eight books on youth work, youth participation and critical pedagogy in his native language, Finnish. He engages actively in promoting participation and developing youth work on the local and state level in Finland.
tomi.kiilakoski@nuorisotutkimus.fi
tomi.kiilakoski@nuorisotutkimus.fi

France
Virginia Mangematin
Ministère de la ville, de la jeunesse et des sports - adjointe du bureau des relations internationales et en charge du suivi du Conseil de l'Europe
virginia.mangematin@jeunesse-sports.gouv.fr
Janaina Paisley
Ministry of National Education, Department of youth, non-formal education and voluntary organisations.
Janaïna Paisley is policy officer in the field of public policies especially social and youth policies. Her background is in sociology (Sociology of the State), history and political sciences. She is also the national correspondent for the European data base Youth Wiki.
Janaina.PAISLEY@jeunesse-sports.gouv.fr

Georgia
Kartlos Karumidze
Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport
kkarumidze@mes.gov.ge

Germany
Kerstin Wondratschek
I hold a master's degree in North American Studies, Political Science and Romance Studies (French) obtained at the University of Bonn. During this time I spent 8 months at Université Libre de Bruxelles as Erasmus student and 3 months as an intern in a political think tank in Washington D.C.
My professional career started at a political foundation in Bonn. I worked for the youth foundation in Baden-Württemberg and returned to Bonn, joining IJAB – International Youth Service of the Federal Republic of Germany. I am in charge of gathering information on youth policy and youth work in different countries for different websites run by IJAB. Since the beginning of the Youth Wiki 2015, I am also working part-time for the Youth Wiki platform and assisting my colleague who is the German national correspondent. I was EKCYP correspondent between 2011-2013. My working languages are German, English and French.
wondratschek@ijab.de

Greece
Correspondent to be confirmed

Hungary
Correspondent to be confirmed

Ireland
Mr Maurice DEVLIN
Maurice.Devlin@nuim.ie

Italy
Maria Luisa Silvestrini
Prime Minister’s Office
Department for Youth and National Civic Service


Latvia
Correspondent to be confirmed

Liechtenstein
Daniela CLAVADETSCHER
Daniela.clavadetscher@llv.li

Lithuania
Ms Ruta BRAZIENE
Ruta Braziene holds a PhD in Social Sciences (Sociology). She is Chief Researcher at the Lithuanian Research Centre, Labour Market Research Institute. Her areas of expertise include youth transition from the education to the labour market, youth labour market integration, youth social exclusion and living conditions, housing provision for the youth, youth policies development and evaluation and etc. She held a research grant and was a Chief Researcher –project leader “Transition of Youth from Education to the Labour Market in Lithuania: development of monitoring system’ (2012-14) from Lithuanian Science Council. She holds a research grant and is a Chief Researcher – project leader “Housing Provision for the Youth: Processes, Problems and Solutions in Lithuania” (2017-18) from Lithuanian Science Council. She has written and published monographs, articles and reports on youth: for example: “Transition of Lithuanian youth from education to the labour market: theoretical presumptions and empirical evidence” (2013, ISI Web of Science, in Lithuanian), “Youth and Housing in Lithuania: Different Opportunities, Pathways and Challenges” (2018, monograph, in Lithuanian).
She has more than 20 years of scholarly and practical experience with Universities, local Governments and NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe, the United Nations (UN) and the European Commission, as well as more than 8 years of experience of ESF evaluations.
ruta.braziene@gmail.com

Luxembourg
Mr Andreas HEINEN
University of Luxembourg
Andreas Heinen is researcher at the University of Luxembourg. He has many years of experience in both quantitative and qualitative youth research. His primary research interests are youth transitions, migration and social reporting. He is co-author of the luxembourgish youth report and involved in many local and national youth research projects.
andreas.heinen@uni.lu

Malta
Mr Jason ZAMMIT
Aġenzija Żgħażagħ
jason.a.zammit@gov.mt
Mr. Ian FARRUGIA
Aġenzija Żgħażagħ
ian.f.farrugia@gov.mt

Moldova (Republic of)
Mrs Mariana TURCAN
Currently, Mariana Turcan is the Executive Director of Creative Development Association. She has a good experience in the youth sector, she was the President of the National Youth Council Moldova (2003-2005), Bureau Member of the European Youth Forum (2005-2006), trainer and co-ordinator of different projects, member in different committees and working groups at national and international level etc.
marianaturcan@gmail.com

Montenegro

Norway
Ms Miriam Poulsson KRAMER
miriampoulsson.kramer@bufdir.no

Poland
Mateusz Jeżowski
Mateusz Jeżowski is a Research Unit coordinator at the Polish National Agency of Erasmus+ Programme and Youth Wiki national correspondent. Since 2006 he has been involved in research projects on youth, education and international mobility, with a special focus on transnational volunteering activities. He co-authored three books on youth policy in Poland and in the Eastern Europe and Caucasus countries and authored several research reports on international mobility impact on young people, local communities, youth organisations and schools. He is working on a PhD on social engagement of ex-EVS volunteers.
Mateusz.Jezowski@frse.org.pl

Portugal
Ms Ana Cristina GARCIA
Ana Cristina Garcia works in the Sport and Youth Portuguese Institute with programs and projets connected with free time and volunteering. She belongs also to the team of Lisbon Youth Centre where she is the responsible for non informal education, democarcy, citizenship and social inclusion. For a long time she is a trainer for trainers in Portuguese language.
ana.garcia@ipdj.pt

Romania
Adina Marina Șerban, PhD
PhD in Political Sciences (Comparative European Youth Policies in Romania and Turkey), with extended expertise in grassroots youth work and youth work methodologies and practices, youth participation methodologies and inclusion policies. MA in Comparative European Social Studies (MACESS) at London Metropolitan University, holding a BA in Political Sciences and one in Social Work – University of Bucharest. Her research interests are in the field of social policies for young people, structured dialogue and participatory youth structures, youth led movements, as well as into the transfer mechanisms of European policies and programmes to the local realities.
adina@cdcd.ro

Russian Federation
Olga Popova

Serbia
Marija Petronijević
Since the beginning of her engagement in 2012 in the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Serbia her responsibilities have been in a close link with National and European youth policies. She had the opportunity to actively take part in the design of the Serbian National Youth Strategy, activities related to career guidance and counselling of young people, regional youth mobility and organization of the work of the Youth Council – Governmental advisory body.
Her education include MA in European integration and BA in International relations at the University of Belgrade.
Her current focus of work is EU pre-accession assistance, cooperation with international donors, UN Agencies, CoE, Erazmus+ programme EU, bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the fields of youth and sports.
She took part in great number of the international activities both on youth and sport policies. She is a member of numerous task forces at national level dealing with youth issues.

Slovenia
Correspondent to be confirmed

Slovak Republic
Mgr. Miroslava Dujičová
Department of Youth, Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak republic
Miroslava Dujičová holds PhD. in public policy and public administration with the main focus on youth policy and educational policy. She completed part of her studies in Lisbon, Portugal. Currently, she is working at the Department of Youth at Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport (MESRS), that is responsible for non-formal education of children and youth in Slovakia. She has completed several internships and attended several conferences with a contributions related to youth work. In 2017, she was chosen to represent Slovak republic at a Young Leaders Summit aimed at youth, which took place in Seoul, Korea and was organised by Asia-Europe Foundation. As a volunteer, she also actively dedicate her time to youth work as a co-founder of non-governmental organization Future Generation Europe aimed at projects of non-formal education for young people. She believes in the power of active cooperation of stakeholders in the field of youth and wishes for stronger recognition of youth work.

Spain
Correspondent to be confirmed

Sweden

North Macedonia
Mr Tomislav GAJTANOSKI
Coalition of youth organisations SEGA
Tomislav holds bachelor degree in Public Administration and has extensive experience in youth policy development over the past 9 years. He was consultant in the preparation of the National Youth Strategy 2016 – 2025, and holds expertise and extensive knowledge in youth participation. Additionally, Tomislav holds expertise in continuous research process on the right to participation of children and youth and expertise in Results Based Approach in PCM. He is an author of several publications such as the Youth Participation Manual, Lobbying Advocacy Manual, Creating Local Youth Policies manual and Report on Monitoring of child rights.
tomislav@sega.org.mk

The Netherlands
Letty Darwish
is Adviser and researcher at Netherlands Youth Institute (NJi), the national knowledge centre about the youth sector, in Utrecht. Main activities: Contributing to several NJi projects about strengthening children and youth wellbeing in cooperation with the youth field; Collecting, writing and publishing online and offline in English about youth policy and participating in expert meetings; National correspondent on Dutch youth policies for Youth Wiki, the online encyclopedia on youth policies in Europe. Assessing and monitoring youth participation projects: one about promoting active world citizenship (SBOS) from the ministry of Foreign Affairs and the other the European programme promoting youth mobility (Youth In Action / Erasmus+ Youth).
l.darwish@nji.nl

Turkey
Correspondent to be confirmed

Ukraine
Ms Anna Оstrikova
Researcher at the Department of civil education of youth, State Institute for Family and Youth Policy (from 2014)
Research interest:Volunteering, evidence-baced youth policy, civic education, non-formal education methods, professional competence of youth workers, project management in the youth field.
My professional goals are to provide development of evidence-baced youth policy and to make researches on youth interesting and understandable for the young people directly.
During the years 2014-2015 took part in researches on the topic:
Social exclusion and social inclusion of young people in Ukraine, Institutionalization of civic participation of young people in the process of modernization of Ukraine, National and patriotic consciousness of the Ukrainian youth: the criteria and mechanisms of formation.
I also participates in the preparation of annual reports to the President of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on the situation of young people.
I have a successful experience of the cooperation with public autorities and NGO's in the field of youth policy.