News of the Global Young Academy

GYA at ISC Member Networking Meeting

At the International Science Council Mid-term Meeting of Members in May in Paris, France, the GYA was represented by Executive Committee member Monika Kedra and Senior Project Officer Jennifer Plaul.

Over 300 participants from 80 countries joined the meeting, addressing the expanding role of the ISC in science advice to the UN system and other organisations, and how members can collaborate to achieve concrete solutions for sustainable development. Empowering young scientists, and including their perspectives at multiple levels, was a recurring topic throughout the meeting. A panel on “Training the next generation of scientists”, co-chaired by Monika Kedra, was received with much interest. The discussion focused on the kind of training needed to prepare young scientists for their future roles, but also on what they already contribute and why their perspective is important. A key message was that a substantial committment is needed to include early-career researchers in leadership roles, decision-making and science advice processes.

“We need to put young scientists where their voices are actually making a difference” – Priscilla Kolibea Mante (GYA Co-Chair, representing the Ghana Young Academy)

At the meeting, the ISC also launched a new in-house think tank, the Centre for Science Futures. At the launch, a joint GYA-IAP-ISC paper was published on the future of research evaluation.

Additional GYA members, incoming members and alumni participated in the Networking Meeting, representing their National Young Academies and other ISC member organisations: Priscilla Kolibea Mante (GYA Co-Chair, representing the Ghana Young Academy), Hussam Hussein (Incoming GYA member 2023, representing the Royal Scientific Society Jordan), Antonia Morita Iswari Saktiawati (Incoming GYA member 2023, representing the Young Academy of Indonesia), Javier Garcia Martinez (GYA Alumnus, representing the Young Academy of Spain & IUPAC), Karly Kehoe (GYA Alumna, Member of the ISC Standing Committee for Freedom and Responsibility in Science 2022-2025 ) and Eva Alisic (GYA Alumna, Member of the Standing Committee for Science Planning 2022-2025).