The Club Alpbach Senza Confini (CASC) is a cross-border non-profit organization granting scholarships for the annual European Forum Alpbach. Founded in 2003, it provides motivated and talented young people from Carinthia, Northern Italy and Slovenia with the chance to get in touch with interesting people from all over Europe and beyond. All our members work on a voluntary basis to support the goal of bridging Europe and our region. Especially in recent days, it is key to strengthen regional cooperation, to foster peaceful relations, and to raise awareness for political and societal issues in the European context.
The Club was granted the official status as an associate member of the European Forum Alpbach by the former President of the European Forum Alpbach, Dr. Erhard Busek. Therefore, it is the official provider of scholarships in the region.
Our goals, as formulated by the founders of our Club, are the following:
- Promoting regional integration and the idea of becoming “one” Europe among young Carinthian, Italian and Slovenian students and young academics.
- Providing our scholarship holders with a significant competitive advantage by raising the awareness and acceptance for a joint European region.
- Promoting the ideas of the European Forum Alpbach in cooperation with other existing Clubs throughout Austria, Europe and worldwide.
- Organizing open debate events for political and societal issues in a European context during the year in our region.
Each year more than 800 international high-profile* speakers from the field of politics, technology, economics, science and arts gather in the beautiful mountain village of Alpbach, in Tyrol. Here, they contribute to a highly intensive program made of seminars, open debates and panel discussions.
In 2022, the Forum’s excellent reputation attracted more than 3,800 participants from 100 different countries, of which 600 were young scholarship holders.
Have you ever wondered, what the European Forum Alpbach is all about? You might have heard stories of well-known people discussing current issues, you might have seen pictures of students hiking up a summit at sunrise, or you might have read newspaper articles about outstanding quotes from the Symposia… but you still have no idea of how this could work?
Then watch the Video below:
Among our scholarship holders – more than 300 so far! – there are outstanding personalities, such as the Nobel Peace Prize winner Leo Hoffmann-Axthelm, and Federica Pesce, who was included in Forbes’ “30 under 30” in 2017.
*for high-profile, we mean that you could see Ban Ki-moon at the grocery store while trying to find some noodles among the omnipresent Austrian Wurst, or the Nobel Prize winner Stiglitz sitting at the local café, and some Heads of State having a chat over a beer. Are they high-level enough for you? ;)
