The Institute was founded in 2014, named after the Scottish historian George Buchanan. Our founders were motivated by his doctrine, as outlined in De Jure Regni apud Scotos – that the source of all political power is with the people.

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Our aim is to provide a space where all students could come together to engage in the policy-making process in order to inspire and enact change.

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Diversity and inclusion are important to Buchanan, which is why our Institute does not have an applications process. Everyone and anyone can join us in turning their ideas into action: the diversity of our members drives Buchanan's capacity to enact creative solutions on complex policy issues.

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Students acquire policy-making skills through the Institute's research process, facilitated through streamlined training sessions, also known as our Weekly Workspaces. We explore qualitative and quantitative methods currently being used to understand and tackle policy issues across all sectors.

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Our members produce policy briefs and proposals which are then used to inspire policy action and debate while hosting launch events and creating blog posts, advocating for concrete policy changes they wish to see.

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