News & Views item - April 2011

 

Young Academy Movement is Gaining Ground but too Slowly. (April 19, 2011)

Last December TFW wrote "Let's Hear It For the Youngsters" where we reported "it may come as something of a surprise that the 77-year old Volker ter Meulen, past president of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and 66-year old Günter Stock, president of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, have teamed together to write this week's editorial in Science on "Cultivating Young Academies". They point out that Germany's: "...growing need for well-trained and highly educated people raises the question of whether Germany is doing enough to support its future scientific leaders. The economic downturn threatens to decrease research career opportunities at a time when building scientific capacity to tackle global challenges has become a high priority."

 

Professors ter Meulen and Stock then put in a strong plug for Die Junge Akademie (the Young Academy) which was organised in 2000. In 2005 a similar Young Academy was established in the Netherlands.

 

Now Bruce Alberts, Science's Editor in Chief, in the journal's April 15th editorial reintroduces the matter:

 

[M]uch more outreach by scientists will be needed to make science better understood by the general public and by governments. Promising progress toward both of these goals comes from a movement that is forging new organizations of young scientists—the “young academies”—around the world. A few weeks ago, a new international organization, the Global Young Academy, held its initial meeting in Berlin to discuss spreading the idea to many more nations (www.globalyoungacademy.org). This effort deserves full support from of all of society... The success of these two experiments has recently inspired six other nations to create their own Young Academies: Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Thailand, and Uganda; all nations where the tolerance and rationality inherent to science will be invaluable.

 

Professor Alberts then calls upon the InterAcademy Panel (IAP), of more than 100 member academies (which includes the Australian Academy of science) to help fill a gap between the national academies represented in the IAP and the "young, dynamic scientists who represent the future in each nation: "This is precisely the gap that has been filled by the Young Academies: each a group of fewer than 200 scientists, typically selected by their national science academies to serve in 4-year leadership roles. Through its connection to a prestigious national science academy, each Young Academy is empowered to exert national leadership in advancing science through projects that the young scientists themselves determine."

 

So far only Germany and the Netherlands are first world countries supporting Young Academies. It is past time that a strong push be made in the 32 other OECD nations to show the way.

 

 

In Professor Albert's view: [B]y providing a shortcut for outstanding young scientists to exert national leadership, Young Academies can be highly effective in recruiting a nation's most talented students to scientific careers—a critical issue for the future of every nation.