The Young Academy of Europe (YAE) held its 2019 Annual General Meeting in October in Barcelona, Spain, in conjunction with the Academia Europaea general meeting. Meeting participants discussed highlights of the past year, and elected several new Board members.
Discussions about the ways in which the structures and work of the YAE could be improved focused on membership selection, fundraising and the potential extension of the YAE membership term from currently five to then seven years.
A panel discussion on the state of academics today under the heading ‘The future for Young Scholars’ brought together panel members including Graham Caie (ALLEA Vice President), Johannes Klumpers (Head of the EC Scientific Advice Mechanism Unit), Rolf Tarrach (Former President of the European University Association), as well as the new second YAE Vice-Chair Gemma Modinos and Vice-Chair Toma Susi. Several important points were raised in the panel, for example that the situation considering the relative availability of funding, stability, work load and track-record threshold to get a permanent position is truly different now than it was a couple of decades ago. This situation may be unsustainable, making academia increasingly less attractive as a job-market for younger research talents.
During the YAE AGM, the Andre Mischke YAE Prize for Science and Policy 2019 was awarded to Professor Janusz Bujnicki (Poland) in recognition of his internationally leading roles in academic research, management, and policy-making.
For 2020, the YAE is looking forward to an exciting year, with some significant changes for the Academy, as they will start operating under official charity status, and will receive funds through an H2020 grant.