Europe is not short of ideas. Across conferences, media debates, and policy discussions, thousands of people are analysing the challenges facing the continent. What is often missing is the infrastructure to connect these insights, preserve important disagreements and translate collective intelligence into shared direction.
This was the challenge at the heart of our contribution as a Solution Partner to the European Forum Alpbach 2026.
Under the overarching question of “How Europe Wins”, we developed an AI-assisted process that “listened” to the Forum as it unfolded. It brought together the knowledge generated across its different formats and invited participants to develop it further. The aim was not simply to summarise what had been said, but to identify the shifts Europe must make, the difficult trade-offs it must navigate and a shared vision of what success could look like by 2035.
The process was led by Alexis Eremia, co-founder of Impact Hub Vienna. Alexis and I facilitated the four Solution Hours, while our wonderful team members Itai Gruenbaum, Raphaela Stock and Sophia Riedl accompanied and supported the process throughout its development and delivery.
Listening to the Forum as it happened
We wanted the four Solution Hours to begin with the ideas and evidence already being generated at the Forum rather than from a blank page.
To make this possible, we built an AI synthesis agent with a deliberately closed source base. It drew exclusively on material created at the European Forum Alpbach 2026: recordings and transcripts of sessions and panel discussions, written results from the Labs, essays and reflections by scholarship holders, speaker contributions and content published on the Forum website.
Nothing from outside the Forum was added.This restriction was fundamental to the concept. The purpose of the agent was not to introduce another external perspective. It was to help us listen to the Forum itself, connect insights from across its different spaces and make its collective knowledge accessible for the next stage of the process.
For each of the Forum’s four strategic themes – Security, Finance, Climate and Democracy – the AI agent supported our editorial team in producing an up-to-the-minute briefing. Each briefing incorporated the material available up to that moment and focused on three dimensions:
- The current logic: The assumptions, incentives, structures and institutional practices currently shaping the respective field.
- The pressures for change: The political, economic, technological, environmental, social and geopolitical forces making the current logic increasingly insufficient.
- The emerging questions and tensions: The contradictions, disagreements and missing perspectives already visible across the Forum.
The briefings were not designed to predetermine the conclusions. They were intended to open the conversation, preserve disagreement and give participants a concrete, evidence-based starting point they could interpret, challenge and develop.
From shared understanding to collective direction
From Monday to Thursday of the Forum’s Conference Week, we hosted one Solution Hour each day, with each session dedicated to one of the four themes.
The AI-supported briefing and contributions from 2 to 3 expert speakers established the current logic and the pressures for change. The participants then took over.
Across the four sessions, approximately 140 participants from diverse and international backgrounds worked in around 30 groups. Each group moved through the following three stages.
First, participants identified the necessary shift: What must Europe move away from, and which new logic, capability or organising principle should replace it?
Second, they examined the trade-offs behind that shift: Who would benefit, and who might carry the cost? Which values or priorities come into tension? What could be lost as well as gained? What must be protected to make the transition legitimate and fair?
The intention was not to eliminate disagreement or create artificial consensus. It was to name the difficult choices Europe must consciously navigate.
Third, the participants developed a vision for 2035: What would people experience differently? What would European institutions be capable of doing? Which new collective capabilities would Europe possess? What visible signs would show that the shift had succeeded?
The vision was not meant to be another list of policies. It was intended to describe a tangible future condition.
The results of each Solution Hour were captured in a thematic canvas, compared across the four days and synthesised into the European Forum Alpbach 2026 Manifesto.
The results: Four propositions for how Europe wins
The four thematic statements of the manifesto read:
1. SECURITY
Europe’s security win requires shifting from national fragmentation, dependency and fear to collective agency, interdependence and an integrated security architecture.
This means relinquishing national self-interest, rigidity and perfectionism for adaptability, effective institutions and courageous action.
By 2035, Europe can defend its people and values as a resilient, equal partner for peace.
2. FINANCE
Europe’s financial win requires shifting from fragmented, risk-averse national markets and short-term thinking to an integrated financial union built for opportunity, scale and long-term investment.
This means letting go of national solutions and established habits for innovation, adaptability and shared sovereignty.
By 2035, Europe is a strong global player known for competitive capital markets and sustainable prosperity.
3. CLIMATE
Europe’s climate win requires shifting from human domination, silos and linear consumption to interdependence, shared responsibility and a just circular economy.
This means letting go of extractive ownership and technological dependence in favour of ecological awareness, collective action and faster implementation.
By 2035, Europe prospers with fewer resources and offers a replicable model for regenerative civilisation.
4. DEMOCRACY
Europe’s democratic win requires shifting from complacency, resignation and fragmented action to active participation, collective leadership and dynamic decision-making.
This means relinquishing fear, mistrust and veto power for flexibility, cohesion and political agency.
By 2035, Europe will be a sovereign, inclusive democracy whose citizens shape decisions and act together for shared prosperity.
The larger themes connecting the manifesto
Read together, the four statements reveal five patterns that cut across the individual topics.
FRAGMENTATION
The first is fragmentation. Whether the challenge is security, financial markets, climate action or democratic decision-making, Europe’s capacity to act is constrained when national interests, institutional silos and isolated approaches take precedence over collective capability.
SOVEREIGNTY
The second is a different understanding of sovereignty. Across the manifesto, sovereignty is not equated with isolation or national self-sufficiency. It emerges through interdependence, shared responsibility, strong institutions and the ability to act together.
ADAPTABILITY & AGENCY
The third is the need to move from caution and inertia towards adaptability and agency. Risk aversion, short-term thinking, rigidity, resignation and veto power appear in different forms across all four themes. Europe’s ability to shape its future depends on replacing them with the confidence and institutional capacity to make decisions and implement them.
LETTING GO
The fourth is an honest acknowledgement that transformation requires letting go. Each proposition names established interests, habits, forms of ownership or patterns of behaviour that cannot simply remain untouched. The trade-offs are therefore not a footnote to the vision. They are at the centre of the political and societal work required to reach it.
CONNECTING STRENGTH WITH LEGITIMACY
Finally, the four visions connect Europe’s external strength with its internal legitimacy. The Europe described here is able to defend itself and compete globally, but it is also inclusive, democratic, ecologically responsible and oriented towards shared prosperity.
The role of Impact Hub and its Labs
For me, the process matters as much as the manifesto.
It reflects what we strive to do across Impact Hub Vienna and our Labs: build communities around shared challenges, connect knowledge and diverse perspectives, and create spaces and processes in which dialogue becomes direction and collective intelligence becomes concrete solutions for society.
Complex challenges rarely persist because nobody cares about them or because no relevant knowledge exists. More often, knowledge remains scattered, the necessary actors do not meet, disagreements stay hidden, and conversations lack a process through which they can become shared direction and collective action.
Our ambition is to provide the needed infrastructure for solution development.
The broad questions raised by the manifesto become tangible in the fields in which our communities work every day. At Impact Hub Vienna, we support social entrepreneurs and connect the wider impact community. Through the Climate Lab, the Future Health Lab and the Education Lab, we bring together the people and organisations working to shape the future of climate, health and education.
Across all four initiatives, we seek to combine:
- Communities that connect people with different forms of expertise, experience, influence and agency around shared challenges.
- Partnerships that enable organisations from different sectors to move beyond individual projects and work together on systemic questions.
- Spaces and processes in which complexity can be explored, disagreement can become productive and ideas can develop into concrete solutions for society.
The Solution Hours were one example of this role in practice. They also illustrate why we do not see a successful gathering as an end in itself. The decisive question is what becomes possible because people came together: What did they understand differently? Which tensions became visible? What direction emerged? And what can institutions, communities and individuals carry forward?
We are grateful to the European Forum Alpbach for the close and trust-based collaboration that made this process possible.
The Forum and the manifesto have provided a shared direction. The next step is to translate it into action. This is the work we want to continue through Impact Hub Vienna and its Labs, together with the communities and partners already connected to them and with others who want to contribute.
If you are developing solutions as a social entrepreneur, shaping climate action, rethinking health or transforming education, we invite you to join us. Our spaces, our communities and our programmes are there to help turn shared direction into concrete solutions for a better Austria and a better Europe.
About the author: Jakob Detering is our Managing Director, leading the portfolio of Impact Hub, Climate Lab, Future Health Lab, and Education Lab. He also serves on the Executive Board of the global Impact Hub network. A recognised impact entrepreneur, organisation builder and systems change leader, he brings business, government and civil society together to turn bold ideas into lasting change. Jakob was also a key driving force in transforming the Social Impact Award into the world’s leading community of early-stage social entrepreneurs and brings extensive experience in scaling social ventures and driving systemic change across Europe and beyond.