The Global Young Academy’s Executive Committee (EC) held their yearly in-person meeting from 22-24 September 2019 in Berlin, Germany. EC members traveled from five continents to participate in discussions centering around the GYA’s strategic planning, working group activities, the ongoing development of National Young Academies, and many other topics.
The EC meets every month by conference call, but the EC in-person meeting is particularly important because it allows the EC to interact at greater length and to break down into smaller groups to tackle specific issues.
Day I was held in the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina’s Berlin Offices (left), while Days II and III were held in the Representation of the State of Saxony-Anhalt in Berlin (below).
Day II also included a presentation and discussion on open science at the British Embassy in Berlin. Participants included Olaf Kranz (left), Head of Science and Innovation Germany, Switzerland and Austria at the British Embassy Berlin, and Jana Hoffmann (below), Head of the Science Programme Digital World at the Natural History Museum in Berlin.
Jana also took part in the panel discussion (right) on Open Science, along with Co-Chairs Koen Vermeir (France), and Connie Nshemereirwe (Uguanda) and Nova Ahmed (Bangladesh). Discussion ranged from the divide in the distribution of chances and challenges presented by open science between developing and developed countries, to open publishing, open conferences and citizen science.
GYA Advisory Board member Ulrike Albrecht also attended the evening discussion, and then joined the EC for its meeting on Day III. She is pictured below, along with Anindita Bhadra (India), Sandra Lopez-Verges (Panama), Michael Saliba (Germany), and Maral Dadvar (Germany).
Day III of the meeting focused on ideas and visions for the future of the GYA, with the aim to draft a new strategic plan by the 2020 Annual General Meeting. Information on the meeting’s content and outcomes will be made available to GYA members and alumni in October. More information on the 2016-2020 GYA Strategic Plan is available on page 5 of GYA Evaluation Report 2018.
