Ana Margarida Silva, a researcher at the Center for Intercultural Studies (CEI) at ISCAP-P. PORTO and an alumna of the Master’s program in Intercultural Studies for Business, participated in the Training School “Pinching policymakers for revitalizing European mountainous regions,” part of COST Action CA21125 MARGISTAR—“A European forum for revitalization of marginalized mountain areas”—held at the University of Oulu in Finland from March 17 to 19, 2026.
The initiative focused on the emerging concept of “pinching policymakers,” which aims to create spaces that are both safe and challenging for interaction with policymakers, promoting reflection on the impacts of existing public policies and the development of initiatives with the potential to transform decision-making processes.
Over the course of three days, the program featured seminars on the science-policy-practice nexus and the revitalization of remote rural mountain regions, complemented by collaborative activities and experiential games designed to foster an applied understanding of science-policy interfaces. Participants engaged in group work focused on identifying and formulating key messages targeted at different political actors and analyzing multilevel governance approaches, linking decision-making scales from the local to the European level.
The training also included co-creation exercises aimed at developing iterative processes of political engagement, covering the identification of decision-makers’ knowledge needs, the construction of strategic messages, and the creation of long-term influence processes. The program concluded with the presentation and discussion of the results of the work carried out, fostering joint reflection on potential future collaborative outputs.