On the landscape of youth participation in science policy

Despite being important policy stakeholders, the youth remain largely absent from policy building and implementation. However, the growing literature has vividly illustrated the capacity of the youth from diverse age groups to make meaningful contributions to policy. In particular, university students are emerging as significant actors in science policy owing to their unique perspectives and knowledge. By drawing from the literature, we emphasize that the youth are capable of directly contributing to diverse policy matters while also indirectly benefiting from their participation. Consequently, there is a crucial need for initiating programs for promoting youth participation. Furthermore, to ensure the fruitfulness of such programs, more systematic research ought to be done with regards to the accomplishments and challenges of youth participation.