As part of the Arab-German Young Academy (AGYA) Annual Spring Conference held at the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, GYA alumna and former EC member Maral Dadvar (Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany) was an invited panelist for the public session titled “The Academy of Tomorrow – Many Routes to Many Futures.”
Panelists, who also included representatives from the German Junge Akademie, the AGYA and the Egyptian and Palestinian NYAs, shared their experiences as individual members of young academies, as well as from the perspective of the organisations themselves. Speakers reflected on the concept of academic leadership, and how the open interdisciplinary nature of young academies had widened their perspectives. The discussion provided diverse insights into the objectives of young academies, their responsibilities, and their benefits for members – finding similarities and differences between the types of academies: national, bilateral and global.
During the panel discussion, Maral emphasized the main role of young academies in equipping young and early-career researchers with vital skills that are not typically taught at universities, enabling them to advance within their careers and beyond, representing science in society.
The panel also addressed the relationships between young academies and their respective senior academies and discussed approaches for how to further improve them. Finally, the panel talked about the main challenges and roles that young academies will take on in the future, specifically how they can serve as a voice at the interface between science, politics, and society.
See an overview (with links) of National Young Academies and similar bodies here: National Young Academies – Global Young Academy.